Full Moons and Quidditch Matches
by laraceleste
Summary: "You were never second best the world may have told you that you don't deserve to be etched on stone but darling, that was never the truth not to me because I've always thought that you should go down in history just for your smile, for the way you believe because the world needs more of your light and if I'm the one who gets to coax that out then I'll take the time to be tender."
1. July 1993 - chapter one

**July 13, 1993**  
It seemed to be as if a damn had broke and the Earth was the small village down stream. Lucretia Walburga Black- Lucy, as she so asked to be called -was soaked to the bone as she hovered on her league regulated broom. The cool rush of air that came from every so often bobbing and weaving oncoming bludgers did nothing to help her warm up or spot the golden snitch.

Lucy could see the opposing teams seeker, Galvin Gudgeon circling the stadium, his bright orange and yellow robes stood out like a lighthouse beacon. Like she, he too was having trouble spotting the snitch.

"Black!" The deep Welsh voice of her captain, Brevis Birch yelled over the booming of thunder, he too was soaked, though unlike Lucy he had blood running down his face from a broken nose and a heavily swollen wrist due to undodged bludgers, "End the game before we all get struck by lighting will yea!"

"Really?" Lucy snapped sarcastically, "Here I thought we'd all like to keep playing another day!" While the two days the Tornados and Canons had been playing were nothing compared to the three months the Wasps and Arrowheads had one played it was still a long time to go without sleep and only the occasional five minute bathroom and snack break.

"Just end the game!" Birch grumbled before flying off to steal the quaffle.

Lucy gripped the wood of her broom tightly as another hour passed and her robes got heavier and everything in her body screamed for a moment's reprieve. Lucy took a deep breath and focused. She could rest when she had won.

Lucy noticed, as she searched for the snitch a small puddle of dark robes step onto the pitch and make a beeline for the referee. Just as Lucy's thin eyebrows started to knit together wondering who would ignore the dangers of blugers and falling players and walk onto an active pitch and start what looked like an argument with the referee a golden sparkle caught her eye.

Towards the middle of the pitch, near where the puddle of witches and wizards and the referee were, was the snitch.

Lucy dove; she pointed the nose of her broom downwards and tucked her legs close to her body and speed towards the snitch.

"TORNADOS SEEKER BLACK HAS SEEN THE SNITCH ONCE AGAIN!" The commenter cried. The Cannons seeker dove too. Though with how far behind Lucy he was all the spectators in the stadium knew that all Galvin Gudgeon could do was hope that once more the snitch disappeared before Lucy could reach it.

The ground continuously got closer by the second Lucy refused to pull up. The snitch had made itself a home fluttering just above the ends of the grass.

Lucy knew that despite the softening charms placed on the ground that a hit like that, from that speed and that amount of force could very well kill her, but she also knew she didn't lose and certainly not to the Chudley Cannons.

Lucy stretched her arm out as she started to pull up at the very last second, catching the thin wing of the snitch between her middle and forefingers.

Lucy held up the snitch triumphantly. The crowd went wild; defining screaming from jubilant fans and disheartened cries from Cannon lovers filled the stadium.

"TORNADOS SEEKER LUCY BLACK HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH! TORNADOS WIN FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY FIVE TO TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN!"

Lucy had only touched down on the ground when her team swarmed her. Marwyn Fenwick, the teams keeper tackled Lucy to the muddy ground as he yelled praises in her ear.

Two of the chasers, Gadrel Harvick and Sasha Golden added to the dog pile.

"Miss Black," the voice of the referee said, all for heads in the dog pile peered up, "If you could please stand up."

Lucy frowned, as did Marwyn and the chasers but did as she was told, pushing the large Scottish man off of her when Golden and Harvick scrambled off of them.

"What's going on here?" Lucy asked with a shaky breath as she peered past the referee and stared at the two hit witches that accompanied the Auror team. Lucy wondered if it was the win, the daring move she'd pulled to win or the fact that most of the Aurors and both hit witches looked as if they wanted to hex her that made her heart speed up to what was probably a concerning rate.

Lucy noticed how the stadiums noise seemed to quite and how everyone- both teams and spectators included -frooze to watch.

"Lady Black," Lucy flinched at the title she never wanted. A dark skinned man who Lucy could only guess was the team leader stepped forward, "We're going to need you to come with us."

"Am I being charged with something?" Lucy asked with a raised brow and an otherwise bland face, her voice hard and steely.

"No but we're going to need you to come with us," the man said once more. Lucy felt a hand on the small of her back and saw that her teams beeters, Travis Hauls and Terry Jeffords stood closely behind her. The Aurors hands twitched to their wands.

"Legally you can't take me in without charging me of something and also legally you have to tell me what I'm being charged with so unless you have a compelling reason I'm not going anywhere with you," Lucy said.

"Very well then, Lady Black as of this morning your brother Sirius Black was discovered missing from his cell in Azkaban."

Lucy felt her blood turn to ice and her breath get caught in her throat. The world seemed to start spinning.

"So maybe he wormed his way into Bellatrix's cell. I'm sure he got lonely," Lucy sneered. Lucy was sure that if her brother murdered thirteen people in You-Know-Whos name that after twelve years of a single cell he would be willing to subscribe to the Black family matto of insest.

"He's not there, Lady Black. Your brother has escaped from Azkaban." And with that Lucy fainted.

* * *

**July 15, 1993**  
Sirius Black had ruined Lucy's life a total of three times. The first had been when he had run away, his bag packed and a defiant look in his eyes as he stormed out of their ancestral home, vowing to never come back; leaving her at the hands of their mother who was hell bent on never making another blood-traitor again. The second time was when he had murdered twelve muggles and a wizard by blowing up a whole city block, children had already seemed cautious of her, their parents had warned them that she was a Black and everyone knew that they were born rotten only to have their suspicions reaffirmed by her older brother laughing on the front page of the national paper after committing a heinous mass murder in the wake of his master's demise. And now this third time.

Lucy felt empty as sat on the couch in the Tonks-Haywood apartment, having been temporarily banished from her own until Ministry techs could comb over every inch of her own matchbox apartment to make sure she wasn't lying about hiding her brother.

Lucy's cousin- second cousin technically -Dora sat besides her rubbing her shoulder and back sympathetically as her girlfriend, a then currently fuming Penny Haywood who angrily paced the length of the small apartment as she read aloud the letter Lucy had received earlier that morning.

This letter was different from the hate mail she had received since Sirius had escaped; this letter was official. It had been nicely addressed to Lucy in dark blue ink and the Quidditch League seal was presses into the back in cool wax and the dread that had accompanied the letter was much more chilling than anything the abundance of anonymous hate mail could ever cause.

"Dear Lady Black, To whom this may concern we, the United Kingdom's Quidditch League, are hereby notifying you of your indefinite suspension from you position as Tutshill Tornados seeker—Bastards!" Penny swore as Lucy stared blankly at the wall.

_What am I to do without Quidditch?_ While it wasn't like Lucy needed the money, she was the sole heir to the Black fortune which was large enough to keep ten more generations of Blacks living lavish lifestyles without ever having to work, she had had fallen in love with the sport at such a young age; back before either of her brothers had joined up to murder innocent people and instead spent their time at home telling her all about the Quidditch games they'd experienced during their school term. It was the one thing she had left of both her brothers that wasn't evil or toxic but rather good and something she could use to remember them before the war had turned them into people she couldn't recognise.

"Dora?" Lucy croaked, her eyes filling with tears, "How can they ban me from Quidditch when I've done nothing wrong!"

Nymphadora's hair turned a dark red as she struggled with her words; "The Minister and Scrimgeour, they think it's best if you don't leave the country-"

"-And since there's games out of the country they thought to ban me from the game in whole!" Lucy snapped. She jumped to her feet and glared at the ceiling.

Fuck the Minister and fuck Scrimgeour.

"Fudge will ban me from Quidditch for simply being Sirius' sister but the bloody son of a bitch will rub elbows with Edwin Nott and certainly sure as hell continue to pocket Lucius Malfoy's money despite the two of them having the bloody dark mark!" Lucy fummed.

Without meaning to in her fit of anger she kicked the kitschy coffee table, sending it across the room. Both Penny and Dora, and Lucy who had realized what she had done froze. Lucy turned to her cousin.

"I'm sorry. I'm-" Lucy pulled out her wand from her robes; a ten and three fourths hawthorn wand with a dragon heartstring core only for Penny to beat her to the punch and magic the table upright in front of the couch one more.

Lucy sat back down next to Tonks, her bony hands tucked under her thin thighs.

"I sorry," Lucy whispered as tears, for the first time, started to fall. Penny, lowering herself gently, sat next to Lucy, sandwiching her in between the two Hufflepuff.

"It's okay, you were mad. You're allowed to be. What the Ministry is doing to you to make it seem like they're doing something, it's messed up." Lucy rested her head against Penny's shoulder.

The trio sat in silence for a moment; the only noise came from the shuffling of the elderly woman above them and their own breathing.

Lucy sighed before the corners of her lips twitched upwards momentarily as she thought of something.

"I wish we were all kids again and all we had to worry about was cursed ice and whether or not we were going to pass our OWLs-"

"And if Snape and Imelda were going to poison us," Added Tonks fondly with a soft smile on her face as she thought back to the pranks she'd pulled on the resident Potions Master during her school years.

"You two and Mia might have but Snape liked me just fine," Penny mused.

Lucy snorted, "The git." The three of them wistfully sighed simultaneously.

* * *

**July 23, 1993**  
After nine days of rummaging through her apartment the Ministry had made sure to let Lucy know she could return to her apartment. Apparently they had also let the Daily Prophet know when she was coming home because there had been reporters camped outside the old building, waiting for her.

"Lady Black!" One reporter cried, "Did you know your brother was capable of such dark magic!" Lucy had not so accidentally elbowed him as she pushed through the sea of reporters.

"No comment," she snapped.

"Lady Black!" Someone else cried, "Any ideas on how your brother escaped Azkaban?" Lucy pulled out the snitch keychain Barnaby Lee had gotten her when she'd been drafted to play as a seeker for the Tornados.

"Didn't I tell you people no comment!"

"Lady Black! Madam Malfoy is quoted saying your brother was always an awful boy any comment?" Lucy turned around and faced the young bespectacled reporter who'd just called out.

"Yeah, if Cissy wants to act like a lady instead of a gossip she knows where to find me but until then all of you bloody vultures can bugger off!" Lucy snarled before throwing her door open only to slam it in the reporters faces.

Lucy felt her heart drop into her stomach as she looked at her tiny apartment. The Aurors had not only made sure the Prophet knew when she was getting home but they had also made sure to leave her home a reck.

All her cupboards were bare and her bookshelf was empty, the books haphazardly stacked on the floor. Her clothing was strewn around the room and her chests of photographs and old Weasley sweaters were turned over.

Lucy felt her chest tighten as she looked at the mess. Lucy had gotten the tiny apartment with her own well earned money, not a single sickle from the family vault and to see her apartment- the only place that had ever truly been hers -in such a state, broke her heart.

Lucy placed her keys into the onto the small end table next to the door and made her way over to the books which looked ready to topple over at any moment.

Most of the books were muggle ones, some were muggle fantasy given to her in her sixth year others were muggle how to's on plumbing and carpentry and other things that magic made easier. The rest were books her friends had written since graduating, a lengthy essay on dragon breeds co-authored by Mia Wetzler and Charlie Weasley- though Charlie constantly made sure to let everyone know all he did was draw the dragons, Mia was the one who'd gotten the idea for the academic essay - more guide then anythung -and written about them- and a short book on misunderstood magical creatures by Barnaby Lee and a recently completed encyclopedia on useless magical facts by Rowen Kahn.

Lucy placed the books written by her friends on the middle self, so anyone the would come into her apartment would see how talented her friends were. The how to books went below that and the other types of books above.

After that she put the sofa cushions back onto the burgundy couch, the large puke green pillows didn't match the sofa or the light blue room but they were so soft. And as Lucy made her way to the kitchen to place her plates and glasses and food back into the cupboards and ice box a knock came from the door.

Lucy froze.

It wasn't a loud we're-coming-in kind of knock, nor was it a meek mousy kind but rather one that reminded Lucy of the Pixie Scouts that went door to door selling potions and cauldron cakes, though Lucy doubted any mother or chaperone would let their child knock on her door anytime soon.

A second knock came. "Coming!" Lucy said calmly as she with withdrew her wand and made her way to stand in front of the door. Lucy wondered who could be on the other side and the only thing- asides from a bold reporter -that popped into her mind was someone looking to enact an eye for eye kind of justice only to then squash that thought because who would try to murder her with with the still dozen or so reporters outside?

Lucy slowly unlocked the two chain locks and three deadbolts before throwing the door open, ready to parry any oncoming attack.

Only it wasn't a stranger looking for revenge or a reporter that stood on her doorstep it was Albus Dumbledore.

"Headmaster? I-please come in," Lucy said, sidestepping the doorway and slipping her wand into her robe pocket once more.

"Lady Black," Dumbledore smiled. Lucy grimaced.

"It's just Lucy sir," Lucy insisted.

"Of course." He took in Lucy's apartment and frowned. "Sorry for the mess I only just got back today."

"It's alright La-Lucy," Dumbledore nodded as he stepped further inside the apartment. "Would you mind if I took a seat?"

"No please do. Any friendly company is welcomed at the moment-this is friendly company correct?" Lucy asked suspiciously. She knew Headmaster wasn't Albus Dumbledores only title.

"Of sorts," Dumbledore answered as he sat in the corner seat of the sofa. Lucy leaned apprehensively against the corner of the bookshelf. "I've heard about your suspension."

Lucy bit her lip and nodded. "Yeah, I talked to the commissioner she says it's indefinite."

Dumbledore hummed and nodded solemnly before brighten up, "Have you heard about Madam Hooch?"

"No is she okay?" Lucy worried. During her school days Madam Hooch had been Lucy's favorite Professor for many reasons, the biggest being Madam Hooch didn't seem to care that Sirius was her brother or she was another branch in the Black family tree just that she could fly. Lucy also loved her because she messed with the first years, constantly telling them they'd fall to their deaths if their hair was too long or the wind was too strong or something of the sorts.

"Yes actually, from what I hear she's terrific," Dumbledore said with a wave of the hand. Lucy's eyebrows came together.

"From what you've heard?"

"Yes Madam Hooch is on her honeymoon, she recently married a Quidditch announcer, you may know her, Millie Gudabi."

Lucy let out a squeal of excitement, "That's great Headmaster, I'm so happy for her though seeing as I wasn't invited I don't believe you've come all this way from Scotland just to tell me this, especially when our dear Minister Fudge will need you assistance most."

"Well you see it is why I've come here, Madam Hooch has taken the upcoming year off for a year long honeymoon and I'm in need of a Flying instructor."

"You want me to teach flying at Hogwarts?" Lucy asked, her voice mystified.

"Yes and I know I won't be able to pay you a quarter of what you were making-"

"Sir money doesn't matter much to me," Lucy waved him off. She took the seat next to her old Headmaster and sucked in a deep breath. "I'm just surprised you'd want me as your flying instructor, especially with Sir-my brother on the lamb."

"I'll tell you what I told you almost twelve years ago Lucy, you were not the one to commit those crimes."

Lucy remembered those words.

_It was the morning of November first nineteen eighty one and while everyone was waking to find out the war was over Lucy had been physically pulled from her bed by her Head of House Severus Snape and brought before the headmaster and Alastor Moody who informed her of her brothers crimes._

_It was afterwards, once Snape and Moody had left that Dumbledore had come around his large desk and places a hand on her shoulder._

_"Bill is going to hate me," Lucy had whispered, her eyes filling with tears. The thought of losing her only friend after losing what she thought to be the only real family she had left physically hurt Lucy._

_"I don't think Mister Weasley will."_

_"And if your wrong?" Lucy rebuked._

_"Then all you need remember is that you were not the one to commit those crimes."_

"I know that Professor, I do, I tell myself those words every night and every morning it's just, parents will write. You'll be scrutinized. Are you sure?" Dumbledore nodded.

"There are no doubts in my mind," the wizard said steady. Lucy smiled.

"Alright Professor then it looks like you've got yourself a new flying instructor."

.

.

.

* * *

**A/N - **

**Hey guys, hoped you liked the first chapter! Obviously as tagged this is a Remus/OC story (even if our favorite werewolf hasn't quite made and appearance yet) so Remus/Tonks won't be happening, nor will any Remus/Sirius. There will also be minor OCs throughout this story. T****hird thing, this is a slight AU, and while Voldemort will still come back and Harry will not a vampire, this will not completely follow canon.**

**This story will contain trigger warnings touching on child abuse. It will also of course because it's Harry Potter, have scenes of murder (possibly gruesome), it will also contain have scenes touching on suicide, depression and other traumas (though I can safely say there will be no sexual assault/abuse of any kind. I know a lot of authors include subjects like that into their writings but honestly- no -as someone deeply triggered by that you will not see it in in my story. Also you can be rest assured that characters suffering from abuse and with PTSD will stop the moment their lives get better or they fall in love or something of sorts.)**

**And as for updating: I thrive on reviews, favorites and follows make me happy but reviews are what keep me going, meaning leave me questions and comments and theories and just everything and anything you thought (accept maybe for grammer corrections, I know my grammer is horrible but hey, English isn't the only language I speak so I think I should get a pass). And now for when I'll post these chapters? I ****will probably, hopefully update once to twice a month; because while I do have over half a dozen chapters already written I am a full time college student currently working meaning once I've published all pre-written chapters it will take time to make room and actually write.**


	2. August 1993 - chapter two

**August 8, 1993**

For the first time in weeks Lucy Black was soaring, high above the clouds on her personally owned Nimbus two thousand and one with a bag full of lesson plans strapped tightly to her back and her dark purple cloak flapping behind her. Lucy laughed as she swerved to avoid a flock of honking geese.

She was going to be a Professor! And while she had only ever thought of teaching once, _after Mr. Weasley, during one of her countless stays at the Burrow, had caught Lucy teaching a then six year old Ginny Weasley the basics of flying she couldn't help but feel excited. _"_You know Lucy," the father of seven had said to the then sixteenth year old witch as Ginny passed them to put away the brooms, "I've never seen Ginny take to something so easily."_

_"It's cause she's a natural Mr. Weasley," Lucy blushed, still not used to compliments from authority figures. Sure Madam Hooch gave them to her after a good game or a daring move gone well during training, and Professors Sprout and Flitwick after being the first to successfully cast a charm or collect sap from a dangerous plant, but after a childhood of nothing but a mother who called out for a long dead brother and the rest of her Professors giving her nothing but tight thin lipped smiles after her accomplishments Lucy was starved for praise._

_"Maybe, or maybe she just had a good teacher."_

_"You think?"_

_"Of course, honestly Lucy if playing professionally doesn't work out I wouldn't be surprised if you gave lessons of a living, Merlin knows you'd be exceptional at it."_

As the clouds started to part over the magical town of Hogsmeade Lucy, for the first time in several years, caught sight of her old home. Just the sight of Hogwarts castle filled Lucy with such warmth the twenty two year old witch felt as if she were about to burst. As Lucy got closer and she started her decent she spotted a large hairy man standing in front of the castle's entrance.

Hagrid. The large man had never once been rude to Lucy while she attended Hogwarts, and though he had acted cool towards her, he had, on one occasion in her early years at school, taken her into his hut and offered her a hard rock cake and a handkerchief after a hoard of bullies had tormented her into the brush of the forbidden forest.

Lucy smiled at the man as touched down on the cobblestone path.

"Hello Hagrid," Lucy greeted. Lucy Black was tall for a woman, nearly one point seventy three meters, yet she still had to bend her head backwards in order to see the nearly seven foot man's face.

"If it ain't little Lucy Black. What're you doing here?" Hagrid wondered, his voice held a tiny note of surprise and and even larger underlying tone of suspicion. His eyes narrowed.

"The Headmaster didn't tell you?" Lucy questioned, "I'll be stepping in for Madam Hooch for the time being."

Hagrid hummed, and nodded, "Of course," he mumbled. "How have yer been?"

"Alright considering, and you?" Lucy tucked her broom under her arm. Hagrid beamed, "Good, Kettleburn is gone so I'll be stepping up."

"That's amazing Hagrid," Lucy clapped the man on his Large elbow, "I'm happy for you, though I'm sure Charlie will be downtrodden to hear it's happening now and now six years ago, Morgana knows he would have tried to hound you into getting a live dragon for a lesson." Hagrid chuckled.

"How is he, Charlie? He sends me updates on Nor-I err—" Hagrid started coughing,

"Hagrid I know about Norberta," Lucy said flippantly.

"Yer do?" Hagrid stilled.

"There's not many people that you trust to smuggle a dragon across the continent, much less people who can do it at last minute." Hagrid eyes softened.

"Yea—?" Lucy shrugged, "Charlie said Mia thought it was wise to have someone to bail us all out if things went south. Mia says it's cause Barnaby, Muerla, and I all have-had flexible jobs."

"Thank yer," Hagrid said earnestly. He gently took Lucy's hand in his and shook it.

"There's no thanks necessary, honestly it was Charlie and Mia, if it had been anyone else who'd asked I wouldn't have."

"Thank yer. Of course the other professors are in the staff room."

"You don't want to walk in together?" Lucy wondered.

"Can't, I'm waiting for the new Defense professor," Hagrid told her. Lucy pressed her lips together but nodded understandingly.

"All right, mind if I save you a seat, us newbies should stick together," Lucy grinned.

"Not at all," Hagrid said as he ushered her inside. Lucy marveled at the entrance as she passed through the thick wooden doors. Despite the fact Lucy had lived inside the castle for several years she couldn't help but walk slowly through the corridors, once again taking in the sights. It was if she was walking with an old friend, never wanting their game of catch up to end.

Lucy noted each of her memories as she passed certain points; _Penny hid behind that suit of armor in order to scare Mia and Rowan, only to catch me and glass figurine I was carrying by surprise._

_I dueled Wilkes there—I would have won if Davies hadn't gotten McGonagall._

_That's the broom close I caught Bill and Nancy Wheeler snogging in._

_That's the painting that ratted me out when—_

"Tickle me pink is that Lucy Black?" Lucy snapped out of her walk down memory lane.

"Professor Sprout!" Lucy addressed happily. The plump woman wore a flowery sun hat over her grey curls and robes that, at the knees and cuffs of the wrists, were covered in dirt.

Professor Sprout caught Lucy around her arms and pulled her into a tight hug. Lucy's eyebrows shot up, she chuckled as the older witch swayed them side to side for a moment before holding the pure blood witch at arm's length.

"Look at you," Professor Sprout tisked, "Thin, hasn't Mrs. Haywood been feeding you at all?"

"I'm afraid Dora is more Penny's concern then I am Professor."

"Professor," Sprout scoffed, "In case you forgot Ms. Black you'll be a Professor here too come September. Call me Pomona."

Lucy grimaced, "I don't think you get how I cannot do that." Calling Professor Sprout Pomona would be like calling either Mr or Mrs Weasley Molly or Arthur, wrong.

Sprout swatted at Lucy before pulling her along.

"I've read the papers, how have you been?"

"Alright considering," Lucy parroted her answer to Hagrid, though unlike the large man Sprout gave her a sharp mothering look.

"There's no need to lie to me," Sprout said. Lucy sighed, her shoulders dropped and the pair of them stopped.

"Terrible. They banned me from Quidditch Professor, indefinitely. They tore my home apart and there's still reporters camped outside my building. My neighbors have left dragon dung on my step everyday since he broke out and you would not believe the amount of hate mail I've been getting—did you know someone went to the trouble to buy runespoor venom and slather it all over the envelope."

"Helga!" Professors hands covered her mouth, "And you're okay?"

"Yeah, the only reason I know is because Dora told me, all my mail is being intercepted by the Aurora department, in case he decided to write me a letter telling me his exact location, you know despite the fact I know him as well as a stranger."

"I'm sorry you have to go through this again." Lucy shrugged, her mouth tight,

"It's not your fault Prof-Sprout? I literally cannot call you Pomona—see my face does this thing and I feel weird and it'd be like calling the Headmaster Albus."

"I do call him Albus, as does the rest of the staff." Lucy gramanced.

"I—yeah no, that's not happening." Professor Sprout giggled.

"Very well, I suppose we should be on our way, "Filius is waiting."

Lucy brightened at the mention of her old charms teacher; it had been midway through her first year when he caught a group of older students picking on her while Bill had been in Potions class. After that he'd taken it upon himself to induct her into the schools dueling club.

"How is he, Professor Flitwick?"

"Good, though he did just get out of St. Mungos."

"What happened? Did he duel that old classmate of his again, Abernathy?" Sprout laughed and shook her head.

"No, he broke an arm, three ribs and a big toe while trying to figure out how to create a flying wheelchair."

"A flying wheelchair?" Sprout made a noise of agreement, "Yes, one of our incoming first years won't be able walk without braces or get around a wheelchair and well—"

"Hogwarts isn't known for its ramps."

"Exactly."

"That's very kind of him."

"It is." The pair turned turned a corner. "And you said first year?"

"Indeed."

"That's great to know." Lucy stopped outside the staffroom. Though the door looked like every other classroom door, plan wood with a simple plaque Lucy felt like she once again stood in front of a vault door, waiting for an Ice Knight to pop out.

Sprout turned to Lucy, "What's the matter dearie?"

"Maybe Headmaster Dumbledore had a lapse in judgement, maybe—"_ I shouldn't be here_. The thought of being welcomed back to Hogwarts only to be turned away at the door, it made Lucy's heart tighten painfully.

Professor Sprout grabbed Lucy's hand and squeezed it, "The Headmaster made no mistake Ms. Black, now come on, where's that young girl who used to run head first into danger just to prove everyone wrong?"

"You're right," Lucy croaked. She took a deep breath through her nose and opened the staffroom door. The staff room was a long room with large windows that, asides from the lack of blackboards and the large rectangular table that stood in the center of the room instead of desks, looked no different than any other classroom.

The Professors in the room, McGonagall, Flitwick, Sinestra, Trelawney and—

"Black!" Severus Snape hissed. The three female professors and Flitwick looked up started, each of them going for their wands before realizing the Black in front of them was Lucretia Black. Professor Flitwick, atop his stack of books beamed at the sight of Lucy. Snape however stood from his chair, the legs squealing as it was forcefully pushed back across the wood flooring.

"Snape," Lucy bobbed her head, "Thank you for the introduction but I'm sure everyone here already knows me."

"I-I don't," the Divination Professor Trelawney said with a meekly raised hand.

"What are you doing here Black?" Snape spoke over the woman, his lips pulled back into some sort of snarl.

"You haven't heard? The Headmaster hasn't told you?" Lucy goaded, Professor Sprout lightly elbowed Lucy in the ribs. "I'm the new flying instructor." Severus Snape turned the same shade of purple he always had when the Headmaster would refuse to expel her and her friends after their adventures in the cursed vaults and Forbidden Forest.

"Now that's a color I haven't seen in a long time," Lucy mumbled to the Herbology Professor.

Snape curled in lips inwardly before marching out of the room, his cloak billowing behind him; he slammed the door behind him as he left. The twins had said he's gotten more batlike.

Sprout and Lucy took the two seats at the end of the table, though Lucy made sure to leave the end seat open for Hagrid.

"Lucy how wonderful to see you again," Flitwick squeaked as Lucy shook Professor Trelawney hand.

"Lovely to see you again as well Professor."

"Bah—Professor," Flitwick scoffed, "You're one of us now."

"And that doesn't make it less weird for me to call Filius or Professor Sprout here Pomona," Lucy laughed.

"Very well," Flitwick conceded, "Would you care for some tea?" Trelawney asked Lucy, holding out a blue teapot.

"Yes, sure, thank you," Lucy thanked as the eccentric looking woman handed her a shaking cup of tea.

"Sugar? Milk?"

"No thank you. I believe tea should be as bitter as wormwood," Lucy said, quoting the sentence her brother Regulus had always responded with when asked if he'd like sugar. It was better than her mothers_, "Do I look like a mudblood? Only they would do something as stupid as ruining an already perfectly good drink."_

"Before we entered Professor Sprout here was telling me that you just got out of St. Mungos," Lucy said as taking a sip of her tea.

"Yes, it was nothing major—" Professor McGonagall scoffed.

"Nothing major Filius, you broke half the bones in your body."

"It could have been worse Minerva."

"You could've had to heal the muggle way, honestly it's a b-uh-pain-" Lucy corrected herself.

"You've has to heal the muggle way?" Trelawney asked.

"After one of my first games, I'd only just caught the snitch when a bludger comes and hits my broom, snapping it in half and well of course I fall, but on the way down one of my teammates tried to catch me pulling out my arm it's socket and causing me to land on my legs, shattering them." Lucky told after she finished her tea.

"May I?" Trelawney asked pointing to her cup. Lucy nodded confused on why the woman would want her cup.

"I remember that," Professor Sprout said tearing Lucy's attention from the divination Professor, "Rolanda, Poppy and I went to that match. It's where she met Millie Gudabi."

"You came to one of my matches?"

"Those three went to many of your matches," Flitwick said. Lucy's eyes softened as she looked at Professor Sprout.

"Ms. Haywood wrote Rolanda one day, saying how no one could make one of your matches so we all got tickets. And whenever no one could make a game of yours we went. Rolanda says it was bad luck for a player to be alone during the game." Lucy speechless. Her mouth fell open and her lips quivered ever so slightly.

"Thank you." Lucy's quiet tone and soft look didn't convey a quarter of the emotion she felt.

The door opened one more, this time in walked Professors Sinestra and Burbage, the Muggle studies and Astronomy Professors.

"Black?" Burbage questioned. She was a dark skinned muggle born with bushy eyebrows and a long nose. She had also been one of Lucy's Professor third year on.

"Professor lovely to see you again." Lucy didn't miss Professor Sinestras sneer. Like Snape Professor Sinestra held a very public distaste for Lucy; Bill chalked it up to the fact that in their first year Lucy had publicly corrected her more than once.

"You're stepping in for Rolanda?"

"Yeah actually." Lucy said surprised that Burbage was the first to correctly guess why she was on the grounds.

"Don't look so surprised Black, you're a famous Quidditch player we're in need of an instructor. Though I'm confused to why the Headmaster chose you."

"Charity!" Sprout And Flitwick chastised.

"No," Lucy shook her head, "It's fine, she's right to wonder. Besides when word gets out I'll be hearing a lot of that and to answer your question Burbage the Headmaster hired me because it wasn't me who murdered thirteen people and no matter what the paper alludes to I didn't help my-I didn't help him escape."

"Do you know how he escaped?" Sinestra questioned as the pair sat next to Trelawney. "You are his sister."

"No I'm not," Lucy said, "I remember as much about him as I do my own father, which is practically nothing."

"But there is something."

"Aurora!"

"I know he used to read me bedtime stories and that when I was five as he left the house for good he gave me his dragon tooth necklace. Other then that I know his middle name and that he murdered thirteen people." Lucy snapped, her face hard and the infamous Black family glare hard in her eyes.

Professor Sinistra opened her mouth only to be cut off by the Deputy Headmistress, "That is enough Aurora, we may not all agree with Albus' decision to hire Ms. Black but she's a staff member now, meaning you'll treat her with the same respect as you would Severus or myself." Professor Sinistra glared at the wooden table before muttering a fine.

It was quite for a moment.

"Your leaves read in interesting story," Trelawney spoke. Lucy looked at the spectacled woman,

"Thanks?"

"Would you care to hear?"

"No thank you."

"Why don't you believe in Tasseography?" Sinestra sneered. Lucy rolled her shoulders; Professor Sprout set her hand on Lucy's.

"I don't see how my beliefs factor into this," Lucy said, her silver Slytherin younger coming out, "Trelawney here is the Professor, the expert in the field."

The extrentic looking woman smiled at the title 'Expert in the field'.

"Then why don't you want to hear it?"

"Because I like a little mystery." Lucy lied. Truthfully Lucy hated surprises but she also didn't believe in Divination. Bill did to an extent. Penny wholeheartedly believed in that sort of thing— that there was a great beyond —Tulip as well. Dora humored Penny because she loved her but Lucy couldn't help but be sceptical. If people could see into the future how come no one stopped him from murdering those people or escaping? How come no one for saw Regulus' death?

Sinestra huffed as the door opened once more, this time revealing Hagrid and a thin looking man with a long scar that stretched across his jaw and a smaller one across the bridge of his nose.

Lucy's first thought was that: _He's handsome_, the second was how, though she couldn't place him, she was sure she'd seen him somewhere before. The man walked with a limp and wore shabby clothing that had more stitches and patches than it did seems. He carried a worn briefcase and neared a warm smile that warmed Lucy from the inside out.

"Remus!" McGonagall greeted warmly. The Deputy Headmistress stood from her chair and walked over to the man— Remus, as Hagrid side stepped them and walked over to Lucy. He looked at the small chair that Lucy had saved for him. Lucy noticed that two more people entered the room, neither of them were Headmaster Dumbledore or Snape so Lucy could only assume they were the Arthmacy Professor Vector and the Matron Madam Pomfrey.

"Er, Lucy yer wouldn't mind makin the chair bigger would yer?" Lucky assumptions were proven right as they sat on the other side of Professor Trelawney.

"Of course not," Lucy had told him, "Let me know when it's large enough." She took her wand out of robe pocket and pointed it at the chair.

"Engorgio." The chair started to swell in size. It had nearly tripled before Hagrid had thanked her.

McGonagall lead Remus to the chair across from her before promising to talk more after the meeting.

"Hi," Lucy greeted the man with an outstretched hand.

"Hello," Remus took her hand in his own. It as warn and calloused. "Remus Lupin, I'll be the new Defense Professor."

"Lucy, I'll be subbing for Madam Hooch while she's on her honeymoon."

"It's great to meet you," Remus smiled. Lucy's brows came together.

"Is it—I mean is it our first meeting?" Lucy asked, she didn't notice most of the room still. "Cause I swear I've seen you before."

"Yer probably have," Hagrid said tactlessly. Both Lucy and Remus turned to Hagrid who was realizing this was something else he probably shouldn't have said. Both Professors McGonagall and Sprout shot Hagrid hard looks.

"What do mean by that?" Lucy wondered.

"Well—er—I," the door opened, saving Hagrid from contouring to floundered for words. This time in stepped Severus Snape—who glowered at both Remus and Lucy like they had been to the ones to personally murder his mother —and Headmaster Dumbledore. The room seemed to stand as he entered.

Dumbledore wore a glittering blue robe and dark purple boots that were heeled and his half moon glasses were perched on the end of his nose.

He smiled warmly at the room. "I see that we're all here, sit, please." While Snape passed both Lucy and Remus without so much as a hello Dumbledore stopped at the end of the table.

"Remus, Lucy, how was the trip getting here?"

"Wonderful sir," Remus said, "I took the express in."

"I flew."

"All the way from Diagon Alley?" Lucy shrugged.

"I stayed above the clouds and sides since my suspension—" Remus eyebrows knitted together, he looked as if he wanted to ask about the suspension before thinking better of it, "—I haven't really been able to get out on a broom so the flight here was lovely."

"I'm glad to hear so." Dumbledore then walked away to the large chair that sat at the head of the table. When he had settled into the the chair he coughed.

"Welcome back," he greeted, the returning staff members thanked him, "And Welcome to our newest staff members, I'm sure you all know them, Remus Lupin—" Dumbledore raised his hand and Remus stood up, waving at his once teachers and peer before sitting back down. "Who will be taking over for Professor Lockhart, and Lucy Black—" Lucy stood up. She noticed that Remus had lost the color in his face and turned a vicious green. "She'll be stepping in for the time Madam Hooch is on her honeymoon."

"Now before we go over lesson plans I must inform you all that against my wishes the Minister of Magic will be placing Dementors on the entrances and exits of the grounds."

The room broke out into a protest of chatter.

"Why?" McGonagall asked, her voice hard and demanded to be heard.

"Sirius Black is after Harry Potter," the room turned to look at Lucy who stared at the Headmaster. She could feel Remus and Sinestras glares. "The Minister thinks that by placing the Dementors here the ministry will have a better chance at catching Black. But I assure you they will not come onto the grounds."

"You can't be sure of that Albus," McGonagall protested.

"Minerva is correct. I propose we give them this Black as a peace offering."

"Why? Scared the rumors about Death Eaters being their favorite snack to be true?" Lucy hissed. Snape opened his mouth to restore when Dumbledore cleared his throat, a hard look in his eyes that made Lucy feel as if she were thirteen again.

"Severus jokes like that will not be tolerated and Lucy, Severus was cleared of his charges, I would implore you not to bring that up again."

"Yes Headmaster," both she and Snape said.

"Second, Remus," Remus, still green looked down the table, "Severus here has agreed to brew your potion." Snape make a huffing sound.

"Potion? Lucy wondered, "Are you sick."

"You haven't heard?" Severus mocked, "Lupin a werewolf."

"Severus!" McGonagall snapped.

"You're a werewolf?" Lucy questioned.

"Is that a problem?" Remus asked tightly.

"No of course not, it's just—ah," Lucy pressed her lips together, cutting herself off.

"Just what?" Sinestra goaded from down the table.

"I want to say you're the first werewolf I've met but then that sounds weird and less like you're a person and more like broom or something, which you're not basically what I'm saying is I have no problems with your—er—furriness?" The muscle in Lupin jaw jumped but he didn't say anything else, instead choosing to turn his attention to the Headmaster.

"Now onto—"

"Actually sir," Lucy raised her hand, "I have a question."

"Yes Lucy."

"How to expect the Dementors to affect Ginny Weasley sir?"

"Truthfully, and especially after so little time has passed, I expect her to react badly to them."

"Then is there anything I can do? Anything I should tell Mr. and Mrs Weasley to have the boys do?"

"Do you know how to produce a patronus charm?" Dumbledore asked.

"No sir, I've never been able to produce one."

"Not even a shield?" Lucy felt her cheeks burn in embarrassment .

"No, all I've ever gotten is a few wisps."

"Then I suppose all you can do is keep Miss. Weasley stocked up on chocolate." Lucy nodded, feeling disappointed. Ginny, over the past twelve years had become something of a little sister to Lucy and to hear that she wouldn't be able to help her hurt.

"If that is all, onto picking Head Boy and Girl."

"Harrow And Montgomery," Severus proposed.

"Hillard And Clearwater," insisted Flitwick.

"What about Trueman and James?" Asked Sprout.

"Weasley and Kane," said McGonagall.

"We like Clearwater for Head Girl," said Vector, pointing to himself and Sinestra.

"Sybil? Charity?"

"Clearwater sounds fine, I've certainly never seen her abusing her power," Burbage said snidely, looking at Severus.

"James has such a lovely future laid out in front of her," Trelawney said.

"Lucy, Hagrid?"

"Percy has my vote," Lucy said. Snape snorted.

"Surprise," he drawled.

"He has my vote because all he's wanted since he was six years old is to be Head Boy. All he's done since then is bug Charlie, Bill and I for lessons on what he'd learn in his upcoming year or to check a practice essay he'd written for fun because he never wanted anything less than a perfect score." Lucy snapped defensively.

"And Head Girl?" Lucy shrugged. "Penny seems nice from what Perce says."

"Hagrid?"

"Percy Weasley is a good boy."

"Three votes for Mr. Weasley and four for Miss. Clearwater. I'll be sure to send their owls later tonight." Lucy grinned, ear to ear, proud of Percy, who of course had always been a stiff little shit but was, like Ginny and all the other young Weasley children, like another brother.

"Now I assume you all brought your lesson plans. Lucy, if you'd like to go first?" Lucy's eyes widened.

"Uh, okay of course." Lucy pulled papers from her bag. Her insides felt as if she'd swallowed a snitch.

"So for the first years I had an idea, they're not allowed to play Quidditch but uh, I remember being eleven and wanting nothing more so I thought if as a year long project, they played a game. Like their own first year cup."

"Not everyone is good at Quidditch," Burbag said.

"Yes, so okay those who are no good or don't want to play will be spotters, and well originally I was going to have each of them compete in their own little contest, who's player was most most improved to be the commentator but Professor Sprout said that there going to be a wheelchair bound child so I thought maybe they could be the commentator and stats keepers for me. You know, so they don't feel left out."

"Quidditch is dangerous, there's a reason we don't let first years try out," McGonagall voice. Lucy thought better than to mention Harry Potter.

"In practice Birch would use softening charms on the bludgers so they'd feel like pillows, and as a seeker I thought What about the snitch? So I came up with his idea: I could charm the snitch not to go past a certain height that way no one falls."

"It's Quidditch, children can always fall," worried Sprout.

"Not if I put a softening charm on the ground. We do it at the professional games, and practice, that way as long as you're not Fienting you shouldn't get too hurt from the fall."

Lucy felt her breath catch in her throat as Dumbledore nodded. "I'm sure the children will have a wonderful time," Lucy grinned.

"Thank you sir."

"Remus, your lesson plans?"

* * *

**August 9, 1993**

The next evening, as the sun was setting and the sky was turning into a myriad of colors, while listening What Is Love on her muggle radio, Lucy stood over her stove making pajeon when a series of rapid fire of knocks came from her front door causing the young witch to jump. Quickly she picked her wand from the shelf above the stove

"Who is it?" She yelled from her spot in front of the stove.

"It's Molly and Arthur dear!" A familiar females voice called out though the new reinforced door Lucy had just had out in.

"Coming!" Lucky called back. Lucy stuffed her wand in her back pocket and scurried to the door, unlocking each of the several enchanted locks she had placed on the door. When the Slytherin alumni opened the door she was grabbed around the shoulders and pulled into a tight Molly Weasley hug to which she did not hesitate to return.

Lucy could hear the clicks of the cameras from the handful of reporters.

When she pulled away Mrs. Weasley cupped her cheeks in a motherly way. "You poor thing."

"Lucy who are they!" The reporter— Seth Waters —who had helped Lucy with her groceries that morning called out. Lucy moved away from Molly. "Are they family friends? Do they know where Sirius Black is hiding. Is that what they've come to tell you?"

"No and why they're here for is none of your business Waters, now get back to your squatting!" She turned to the only parental figures she'd ever had, "You two should probably come in." Lucy ushered the two Weasley parents in and made sure to flip Seth Waters off as she slammed the door shut.

"Sorry about that."

"They're still out there? It's been nearly a month," Arthur frowned.

"Those are the interns, the actual reports gave up two weeks ago," Lucy told them as she waved her wand, shutting off the stove. Both Mr. and Mrs. Weasley took a seat on the couch.

"Why isn't the Ministry doing anything? It's harassment!" Molly glared towards the door.

"The Ministry doesn't have to pay Aurors if they have Prophet interns watching my every move."

"We just got back tonight, came as soon as we heard—though Billy is a bit miffed he had to hear through the paper," Molly said in that tone of voice mothers always used to passive aggressively lay on the guilt. Lucy's palm slapped against the skin of her neck guiltily.

"I know how Goblins get when you ask for vacation, Bill doesn't need to take days off and come here to worry about something out of his control, especially when he already had Ginny, Ron and Meriri to fret over."

Both Molly and Arthur eyes dimmed at the mention of what had happened in June, the fear of almost losing two of their children and their niece still raw.

"That's exactly what Bill told us," Arthur swallowed as he pulled out a thick envelope, "Which is why he gave us this to give to you." Lucy smiled and took the envelope.

_To my favorite Secret Keeping Twit_ was scratched out in a familiar looking scrawl. Lucy placed the letter in the coffee table.

"How was Egypt?" Lucy wondered. Arthur gave Lucy a look that told her he knew exactly what she was doing by avoiding the elephant in the room.

"Great," Arthur said, "Well," he amended, "The twins tried to lock Percy in a tomb and Meiri and Ginny tried to dare Ronald into eating a spider but Charlie And Mia visited for week—"

"Still not married mind you," Molly muttered. Lucy snorted at the thought of Charlie being married. The pair loved each other more than anyone Lucy had ever seen but marriage seemed for too serious for the both of them.

"Come on Mrs. Weasley you know as much as they love each other the only thing either of those two will ever actually be married to is their work." Molly huffed.

"How many times have I told you, you don't need to call me Mrs. Weasley anymore."

"And how many times have I said I physically cannot call you anything else." Molly laughed a little before chattering on about the types of fashion she had seen and food she'd eaten and the places they visited.

An hour latter as the conversation came to a lull and Molly walked off to Lucy's tiny kitchen for a drink Arthur turned to Lucy.

"I saw in the paper that they suspended you from Quidditch. The kids, they're heartbroken."

"Mia threatened to lead a dragon army to the Ministry before Charlie pointed out the journey would tucker the dragons out," Molly tutted, though a ghost of a smile played on her lips.

"Bet the twins loved that."

"And Ron, and Meriri and Ginny, each of them ready to ride a dragon to defend your honor." Lucy smiled at the mention of the two youngest Weasleys and Prewett. While Percy had been five and the twins nearly three and already off in their own little world of mischief, all three of them had been infants when Bill had brought her home that first Christmas. Lucy had grown up watching the three of them learn how to walk and talk and read and write and fly a broom. It was the vast age difference that made Lucy really feel like their older sibling.

"Yeah well, the Minister thought best to get the league to suspended me. Dora said the reasoning was that because there's matches out of the country I could smuggle him out."

"Bastard," Arthur swore. Lucy choked on her spit and Molly looked ready to hurl a hex her husbands way.

"Arthur!" Mr. Weasley's cheeked pinkened.

"I—sorry dear," Arthur said as Molly sat back down.

"Lucy, any idea on what you're going to do with all your free time?" Molly questioned.

"Actually I got another job," Lucy informed them proudly.

"Really? No offense but I don't see the ministry hiring you?"

"They didn't, Dumbledore did." Molly squealed and pulled Lucy out of her seat and into another rib crushing hug. "Madam Hooch got married, I'll be the flying instructor for the year."

"We're so happy for you," Arthur applauded.

"Thank you—but uh I need to tell you two something."

"Anything." Arthur said.

"Dumbledore, during the staff meeting informed everyone that the Minister will be placing Dementors at the ententes of the school. He swears though that they won't actually enter the grounds." Both Weasley parents paled.

"But—"

"I already asked how it would affect Ginny should she come near one, Dumbledore advised me to stock up on chocolates. He also said something else, something you can't tell the kids." Lucy said seriously.

"Of course," Molly nodded. Lucy took a deep breath through the nose.

"Sirius is after Harry Potter, it's the whole reason he's broken out. Why the Dementors will be at the school." If it were possible Molly seemed to pale more.

"But he's a child!" She cried, "Why would he be after Harry?" Lucy shrugged.

"I don't Mrs. Weasley, I wish I did, I know how close Meriri and Ron are to him, which is why I'm telling you to let Harry Potter know to be careful and for once not to go looking for trouble. He's not on the back of some teachers head, nor is he a ghost from the past, I don't care how you do it but you need to make Harry Potter understand he is a real man with years of dark magic under his belt." Arthur nodded.

"We understand—we will."

"Good," Lucy swallowed before grinning weakly, "Did Percy open his mail yet?"

"No why?"

Lucy smiled slyly, "You two should be off, " Lucy said standing up, leading the pair to the door. "And tell him congratulations. And please tell the kids I'll see them at the feast—actually don't, I want to see their faces when they come into the hall."

* * *

**August 27, 1993**

Lucy wouldn't call it party, maybe a large get together but not a party. Her teammates and friends who had stayed in England after Graduation sat around her apartment drinking and talking. Penny had proposed the idea after she claimed Lucy needed a proper send off before term started.

Penny sat on Dora's lap as they lounged in the brown loveseat, next to Rowan, who for what seemed like the first time in months had left her apartment. Rowan was talking to Fenwick and his heavily pregnant wife Michelle. Murela and Barnaby Lee talked with Gadrel and Sasha on the couch, both Barnaby and Gadrel flexing in order to see who's muscles were bigger—while Shasha and Murela pretended not to be too interested and Haul amd Jeffords made out in the bathroom.

Lucy leaned against her kitchen counter next to Birch. He held a glass of gillywater while she held a glass of Firewhiskey she'd broken out of the Black family wine cellar.

"So excited to teach Professor?" Birch teased.

"I'd be more excited if I was playing against the Irish next Tuesday," Lucy said truthfully.

"Yeah well don't sweat it, come next season you'll be there to kick their ass."

"You think?"

"I know so, and want know how Black?" Gadrel locked Barnaby under his armpits. Penny magiced her coffee table away to the other side of the room as Dora, Murela and Sasha all started cheering.

"Don't break my shit!" Lucy called out, Dora waved her off,

"Not like you can't afford it!"

"How is she my favorite cousin?" Lucy mumbled as she turned to Birch, "Sure, tell me."

"Because I've never seen anyone love this sport the way you do. I mean, do you remember your first year on the team? Fresh out of school and already playing!"

"Yeah but that's cause Marks quite as the reserve and Coldwater couldn't play after his accident."

"Please, I could have made you the new reserve instead of Ethel but you want to know why I didn't?"

"Sure."

"Because it was you out on that field at five in the morning and it was you who was still out there at ten at night and you were the only who ran the five miles I proposed as punishment for the hell of it because you wanted to stay in shape. You live and breath Quidditch and that's why come capture or no capture I'm sure I'll see you at practice next season."

Lucy paused. She wasn't sure if she could kiss Birch, while she didn't fancy him in the slightest the raw emotion in his voice and the conviction in his eyes had been so real it made Lucy wonder if she should.

If her deciding not to was a quick decision it was only because Fenwick stood up, raising his glass of butterbeer and flicking the rim of it in absence of tapping it with a fork.

"If I can have everyone's attention, it's getting late but before Michelle and I head out I'd like to say a few words about our lovely seeker. When I first met Lucy I thought she'd be nothing but an heiress who'd bought her way onto the team, I was quickly proven wrong. Before I really got to know her I thought she'd be a witch-" the room snorted at the terrible pun, "-once again she proved me wrong. And if the pattern continues then I expect she'll make a better Professor then I already imagine she's going to be." Lucy smiled broadly at the keeper.

"Me next," Dora said, shifting Penny off her lap and standing up "When I was in my first year Lucy found out I was her cousin and befriended me and my mum hated it. She kept telling me I'd be disappointed and hurt but truth was I've been nothing but surprised since meeting her. She's may not always be the kindest but she is the best, she's always there when she needs to be and what I'm trying to say is fuck whatever the parents say when they find out the best seeker ever is teaching their kids just remember that we're your family and we love you."


	3. September 1993 - chapter three

**September 1, 1993**

Lucy, still enamored with the starry ceiling, had only just sat down next to Professor Sprout when the Great Halls doors opened. Students poured into the Great Hall like water from a leaky faucet.

"Nervous?" Sprout giggled as Lucy sat upright in her seat.

"Me, nervous?" Lucy scoffed playfully, "Yeah, petrified. What if I'm a terrible Professor?"

"You'll be fine," Professor Sprout patted the top of Lucy's hand. "Just don't terrorize the students."

Lucy learned in and whispered into the Herbologists ear, "Snape may actually go ahead and poison me if I try to take his job." Professor Sprout clapped her hand against her mouth as she eyed the Potions Master down the table.

"Lucy! Luce!" Two voices called out. Lucy scanned over the Gryffindor table and spotted two jumping Weasley twins. She waved at them and the dark skinned boy next to them, who Lucy quickly recognized as Lee Jordan, gave her the same awed look he'd worn four years prior when Lucy had helped Charlie take the twins and Percy for school supplies.

Lucy noticed, as she gave a thumbs up to Percy who proudly pointed at his Head Boy badge, Lupin enter the Hall through a side door. He paused in the doorway and scanned the table for an empty seat. Lucy tried not to let the look on his face get to her when he realized the only empty seat left open, asides from Professor McGonagalls which sat right of the Headmaster, was next to her. He looks like he rather sit in Snape's lap then next to me.

"Lucy what are you doing here!" A tiny red headed thirteen year old girl in obviously second hand uniforms ran up to the staff table, her yellow and black tie not properly tucked in. "Hello Professor Sprout How was your break?" Meriri turned asked her head of house.

"It was wonderful Mrs. Prewett, Ms. Black here said you went to Egypt, how was it?" A second red headed girl approached the table as Meiri talked about Egypt to her head of house.

Lupin silently slipped into his seat, his jaw tight and his shoulders tense.

"Lucy? I thought that was you. What are you doing here? Do mum and dad know? Does Bill?"

"Wow not even a hello," Lucy joked. Ginny stuck her tongue out at her in response. "The Headmaster will explain his speech, yes and as of last week yes. Also please take Meriri back to her table," Lucy listed off on her fingers.

"If you didn't want me here you could have just said," Meriri pouted as Ginny with wide eyes and puppy dog look she'd been using for years to get Charlie to do her bidding asked if Lucy could "Please just tell me why you're here _comeonplease_!"

"Not going to work little girl after twelve years I'm immune," Lucy then turned to Meriri, "And I don't want you here," Lucy felt a smile curl on the end of her lips.

"How rude," Meriri huffed as her younger cousin pulled her away, grumbling.

"You seem close," Lupin commented. His lips barely moved as he stared ahead, not sparing Lucy a look; her smiled faltered. I should be used to this kind of manor Lucy thought; but she wasn't, because she want to believe people could look past the end of their noses and the branches that made family trees and see the truth. She was Lucy Black Seeker extraordinar, not Sirius, crazed Mass Murderer.

"We are," Lucy answered him, "Their older brother is my best friend, was my only friend until our fifth year." Lucy waved to a confused looking Ronald who briefly waved before turning to a freckled boy, who, due to the missing eyebrows and soot covered face Lucy could only guess was his dormmate, Seamus.

"What happened in your fifth year?" Lupin wondered as the stream of students began to turn into a trickle.

"Mia needed help with the Cursed Vaults. I mean she had come to me in her previous years for personal reasons—" "How do you deal with people judging you for your brother's actions?" "—But in mine and Bills fifth year she'd asked for help opening one."

"Wasn't a report in the papers about a student being killed due to those?" Lupin wondered sharply, almost accusingly, as if Lucy were to blame. Lucy's fingers curled around the arms of her chair as she felt Sprout stiffen next to her.

"Jacob, yeah," Lucy spoke softly, the memory of Jacob Lewinsky's funeral flashed through her mind. "He was Mia's brother—the whole reason we ever went looking for the vaults. Mia had been so sure we'd find him alive and everything would be fine." But it wasn't went unsaid.

Lucy could remember Mia coming to her in the wake of Jacobs funeral, her eyes raw and puffy.

_"You're the only one that understands," Mia croaked. At the time Lucy's heart had twisted painfully. Out of all their friends Lucy was the only one who had lost a sibling, the only one to understand what it was like to grow older than her own brother ever wold._

_"Dose," Mia shook as more tears came to her eyes, "Does the pain ever go away?" Lucy wanted to lie and tell her Yes, that nowadays she woke up and the hole in her chest that had formed years ago didn't ache like a missing limb but she couldn't because it wasn't true. Because there was never a day where she didn't wake up and look in the mirror and pick out the pieces of her reflection that had once not been just her own, that there wasn't a day where there wasn't a painful reminder to her that she was all that was left of the family she'd been born into._

_"No, but it does become bearable," Lucy whispered, "Some days your first thought isn't My brother is dead it's What's today's agenda? Or Do I still have any cereal left?"_

_"And?"_

_"And sometimes on those days you'll feel guilty for him not being your first thought. For not letting your grief consume you from the inside out."_

_"What do you do?" Mia whimpered, "On those days."_

_"I think of how Reggie was so ambitious and how he would throttle me if all I did was lay in bed missing him."_

_"Jacob would throttle me," Mia nodded._

_"Exactly. So think of whatever you have to and just keep moving forward. It gets easier as the goes on."_

Lucy is pulled out of the memory by the sight of McGonagall leading a tiny sea of forty six unmarked first years through the isle between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables, each and everyone of them looked both terrified and excited. A few were jumping up and down, two of them, identical twin girls, held the others hand painfully tight and one of them, a boy with hair that resembled yellow string was soaked. Lucy assumed that like she had all those years ago, he too had fallen out of the lake.

Like she had done at Lucy's own sorting McGonagall stepped up next to the rickety three legged she had placed out before leaving to retrieve the first years, along with the schools Sorting Hat that, as McGonagall pulled out a large roll of parchment, came alive. A rip near the brim of the hat opened up as the headwear belted out a song it had spent the entirety of the previous year, and all of the summer, coming up with.

As always the Hat sang of wise old Ravenclaw, that in the house of wit you would find man's greatest treasure. It sang of gallant Gryffindor and kind Hufflepuff who's toiling away never lead her astray and ambitious Slytherin who though was shunned never cunned those he thought of as friends.

And as the Hat's song died out McGonagall opened up the parchment and read the first name, "Abbo, John." A boy with large ears and a gap between his teeth walked up to the stool. McGonagall set the sorting Hat onto the young boy and after a few seconds—though it felt like an eternity, the cried out "RAVENCLAW!"

Flitwick clapped the loudest at the staff table, though even his applause were swallowed whole by the blue and bronze table in front of him who welcomed the young boy.

"Beetles, Wendy." A blonde girl stepped forward, her cheeks round and pink and her eyes glued to the floor stepped up. Quickly the hat put her Ravenclaw as well.

Burgins, Walsh was placed into Hufflepuff and Brighton, Kelley into Gryffindor and while Lucy paid attention to each of the first years sorted it was Greengrass, Astoria that made her sit up in her seat.

Astoria, unlike her father, had dark chestnut hair and almond shaped eyes. Her skin was a few shades lighter than her mothers and unlike Ginny or Meriri she did not wear second hand robes.

"Do you know her?" Sprout mumbled as the girl made her way up the steps.

"Reggie was betrothed to her aunt," Lucy replied. He had loved her. Claudia Burke, according to Regulus journal— something a seven year old Lucy loved to read while her brother was 'out' —claimed how he loved the pure blood witch more than Orpheus had loved Erudice. How just a smile from made the whole world seem less dark, and how it would be for her and any children they may one day have he would do what he did.

"SLYTHERIN!" Lucy clapped loudly both because she was the first Slytherin to be sorted and because she looked like the ghost a woman who Lucy had once known foundly.

"What house were you in?" Lupin asks suddenly. He doesn't turn to look at Lucy and instead focuses on the skinny brown haired Grossmen girl who had been called up.

"Slytherin, you?"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Gryffindor."

"Sage, Mccarthy."

"What class were you, I was eighty nine."

"HUFFLEPUFF!" Lupin did not answer. Instead he shifted his weight to be farther away from Lucy for the continuation of the sorting. McGonagall took her seat at the staff table after the Hat had sorted the last first year, a gangly boy named Sherman Watterson.

Dumbledore stood from his large chair, the candlelight shimmered against the white of his long beard. He smiled out at the students kindly and welcoming.

"Welcome! Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you all, and as one of them is very serious, I think it best to get it out of the way before you become befuddled by our excellent feast," Dumbledore cleared his throat, "As you will all be aware after their search of the Hogwarts Express, our school is presently playing host to some of the Dementors of Azkaban, who are here on Ministry of Magic business."

As students frowned up at the Professors Lucy felt a wave of guilt roll over her despite having nothing to actually feel guilty over. "They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds and while they are with us, I must make it plain that nobody is to leave school without permission. Dementors are not to be fooled by tricks or disguises — or even Invisibility Cloaks. It is not in the nature of a Dementor to understand pleading or excuses. I therefore warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. I look to the prefects, and our new Head Boy and Girl, to make sure that no student runs afoul of the Dementors—" Percy puffed out his chest and Lucy proudly smiled down from her seat at him.

"On a happier note I am pleased to welcome three new teachers to our ranks this year. First, in wake of Madam Hooch's honeymoon the Tornadoes Seeker Lucretia Black will be stepping up to instruct first year flying and over see Quidditch games." Professors Sprout And Flitwick clapped, along with some children, first years and probably Tornado fans, applauded loudly as well, though none more loudly then the Weasley—Prewett children who each yelled congratulatory words and whistles.

Lucy didn't miss the sour face her second cousin Draco Malfoy made or the discreet thumbs up her other second cousin Ophelia Lestrange flashed her.

"Second Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." There was some scattered, rather unenthusiastic applause, Ronald and the children surrounding him clapped loudly though. Lucy clapped for him despite the fact he had not clapped for her.

Kindness Sprout had once told Lucy And a well aimed Bat Bogey hex are the best kind of revenge.

"As to our third new appointment," Dumbledore continued as the lukewarm applause for Professor Lupin died away. "Well, I am sorry to tell you that Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired at the end of last year in order to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs. However, I am delighted to say that his place will be filled by none other than Rubeus Hagrid, who has agreed to take on this teaching job in addition to his gamekeeping duties."

The Gryffindor tables claps seemed to drown out the rest of the rooms. Hagrid, smiling widely under his tangled beard, Lucy saw from the corner of her eyes, turned a bright red.

The large man started to dab his tearing eyes with the end of the tablecloth as Dumbledore began to speak again, "Well, I think that's everything of importance. Let the feast begin!"

* * *

**September 2, 1993**

Lucy, dressed in nicely pressed Quidditch robes she had bought specifically for practices, had only just left her room when a hoard of red headed teenagers and their friends mobbed her.

Ginny grabbed Lucy around the waist, hugging her tightly, pressing her face against the fabric of her robes. Lucy didn't hesitate to return the tight hug as the twins Fred and George called attention to themselves.

"Well isn't it—" one of the twins grinned, arm thrown over his bashful looking friend Lee.

"—The wonderful—" the other twin leaned against Lee.

"—And magnificent Lucy Black!" They chorused.

"Thank you for the praises, though technically it's wonderful and magnificent Professor Lucy Black," Lucy corrected.

"And why didn't you tell us you were going to be a Professor?" Demanded Meriri Prewett as she elbowed her way past her cousins, her fingers locked around Rons wrist pulling him forward behind her.

"Because I thought how fun it would be to see the look of shock on your faces when you little fu—when you little friends saw me at the staff table."

"You little friends?" Snorted one of the twins. Lucy threw him a dry look.

"It's my first day and I don't wanna get fired for calling the two of you shitheads little fuckers. Fuck," Lucy swore, clapping a hand to the side of her face. Both Meriri and Ginny giggled at the affronted looks both twins wore. The bushy haired girl that had saddled up to Ron looked horrified that a Professor had used such language, exactly the opposite to the awed reaction that the boy— Harry Potter, Lucy easily recognized—wore. Percy, though a stickler for the rules, was used to Lucy's use of profanity and opted to loudly sigh.

Lucy clapped her hands together, "Please don't tell McGonagall or Sprout." The last time Professor Sprout had caught Lucy swearing was with Dora in front a group of Hufflepuff first years in the middle of her seventh year. Professor Sprout had then promptly used Scourgify on the pair of them to wash out their mouths. Dora swore her taste buds haven't been the same since.

"Of course," the tall Scottish boy next to Percy quickly promised. Lucy could practically see stars in his eyes.

"Right," Percy said, he clapped the Scottish boy on the shoulder and moved him forward, "Lucy this is Oliver Wood, Gryffindor Quidditch captain. He wanted to meet you."

Lucy stuck her hand out for Oliver to shake— which he gratefully took and shook vigorously —and opened her mouth to greet the young man, happy to finally put a face to the name the twins complained about when he cut her off.

"I'm a big fan ma'am, I mean I love Puddlemore more but the Tornadoes, they're a close second. Can I say, the way you caught the snitch in your game against the Harpies two years ago— jumping off your broom into the arms of one of your chasers —it's was amazing. Phenomenal!"

"Thank you very much, your praise means a lot."

"It does?" Oliver asked shyly.

"Of course it does. It brightens my day to know after hearing how someone liked a more should-of-been-carded-shouldn't-have-been move I pulled. Especially after hearing from the twins here on much you love the sport."

"They-they've spoken about me?" Fred, or George, bit his knuckle from behind this captain.

Whenever the twins had spoken about the Scot is had been because he was overworking them, that if he breathed another word about Quidditch they were going to throw him into the vanishing cabinet on the seventh floor.

"Ever since they've gotten onto the team. You're a good captain Oliver." Percy eyed his dormmate wearily as he started to sway.

"Alright Wood come on, before you pass out and I'm late to my first lesson because of you," Percy grumbled, pulling the Scottish boy away.

"Oh Perce," Lucy said before the pair had gotten to far, "I'm proud of you." Percy's ears burned brightly before he continued to cart off Oliver.

"Before we forget," one twin clapped the boy with dreadlocks on his back, "This is Lee Jordan," the other introduced.

"I remember." Lee Jordan faltered for a minute.

"Ms—Lady Black," Lucy grimaced at the title.

"Ms. Lucy is just fine Mr. Jordan, Madam Lucy if you prefer."

"Can I get an autograph?"

"Do you have—" Lee produced a signature book and an already inked quill before Lucy could finish.

"Little quick there Lee," a twin snorted, Lucy scribbled out her name and a sweet message to the young boy — to the best announcer Hogwarts has seen in years.

"Isn't he always," the other laughed. Lee shot a dirty look at the pair while Ginny, Ron and Meiri and their friends who had been standing idly in back looked on in confusion.

"There you go, have a nice day Mr. Jordan and Fred, George?" The twins looked at Lucy, "Don't cause too much mischief in front of me this year I would hate to have to dock points."

"No promises," they laughed fore carting Lee off down the corridor in the opposite direction that Percy and Oliver Wood had gone.

"Now onto Mr. Potter and Miss. Granger?" Hermione Granger nodded. Lucy grabbed Harry and pulled him tightly to her chest, hugging the young boy.

"Thank you," she said softly, "For saving Ginny," she pulled away and Harry looked at her with a half slacked mouth and wide green eyes, "Ginny and Meriri are like little sisters to me and I don't know what I'd do if I lost one of them so really Mr. Potter, thank you."

"Er—no problem?"

"Kid you risked your life in a situation you weren't expected to do so in, so thank you. Anything you might need you can feel free to come to me."

"There is something," Harry said, Lucy felt her eyebrows raise, "Ron said you were Sirius Black's sister."

Lucy felt her stomach drop. "And you're wondering why he might be coming after you?" Harry nodded.

"I can't help you with that Harry, I wish I could but I don't know."

"But he's your brother," Hermione Granger pointed out. Lucy bit her tongue for a moment to stop herself from snapping at the young girl.

"My brother," Lucy choked out, "Is ten years older than me Mrs. Granger, by the time he'd done what he did we were strangers. But Mr. Potter, I can promise that no matter what no one inside this castle will let anything happen to you. Is that clear?" Lucy understood why Harry didn't look like he bought it, one Professor had tried to murder him because in the back of his head was the Darkest Wizard of all times and another had tried to leave a girl to die and wipe his and his friends memories.

"You're sure?" Meriri asked.

"Positively or my name isn't Lucy W. Black."

"What does the W stand for?" Hermione asked.

"Wombat," Lucy replied easily, because who in their right sober mind would willing tell someone their name, middle or otherwise, was Walburga?

**…...**

Lucy's first class of the day was during the third block of the day, the class was comprised of ten Slytherins and fifteen Ravenclaws, all twenty five of them stood in the middle of Quidditch pitch, older students sat in the bleachers.

"Hello class I'm your flying instructor Lucy, you can all call me Madam Lucy, Mrs. Lucy—"

"Lady Black," Lucy flinched as a Slytherin boys hand shot up.

"Just not that," she said to the class, an easy smile returning to her face, "Yes—would you all mind stating your name for me just for the first few classes?"

"Lucas Stebbins ma'am, were you really a professional Quidditch player?"

Lucy beamed at the question. "Yes I was, in fact I'm the youngest player the Tornadoes have ever drafted to team seeing as technically I was still sixteen."

"My names Tahani Ajamil and I was just wondering what is Quidditch?" A Ravenclaw girl wondered.

Lucy opened her mouth to respond when a snidely whispered "What's Quidditch? Mudbloods am I right?" reached her ears first. Lucy froze, as did the quarter of the class that understood what the word meant.

"Who said that?" Lucy asked quietly. No one stepped forward.

"I saiD WHO SAID THAT!" Each of the first years jumped, as did the students in the stands.

"I won't ask who said that again," Lucy snapped, her back straight and chin held high, looking as regally intimidating as all Blacks before her.

It's quite for a moment before a boy with thin cheeks and a crooked nose stepped forward.

"And what is your name?" Lucy asked sharply. The boy didn't meet her eyes, "Edward Wilkes." Lucy remembered his brother from school, the pair of them shared the same light hair and cheffed chin. Apparently they were both also bullies.

Lucy grabbed the pink muggle gel pen Gadrel had given her at her send off get together and the stack of write up pads Lucy hadn't thought she'd have to use until the brooms came out.

"Now Mr. Wilkes," Lucy said with a false steady in her voice, "I'm going to send you to your Head of House but before that I'm not only going to dock fifteen points from Slytherin but because I know Snape I'm going to give you two detentions of my very own." Wilkes sucked his teeth. "But before I do any of that I'm going to let you all know that bullshit like bullying or racist comments will not be tolerated in my classroom or anywhere near me because do you all know what I will do if I see shit like this again?" No one spoke. "I'm going to give you to the caretaker Filch and I'm going to personally see he locks you in the dungeons by your toes for a night is that clear?"

"Yes ma'am," the class murdered as Lucy thrust out the glittery pink write up slip to Wilkes. Lucy turned to the stands of older students.

"You!" She pointed at a Hufflepuff boy, "What's your name?"

"Cedric Diggory?" The name rung a vague bell in the back of Lucy's mind.

"Ten points to Hufflepuff if you walk Mr. Wilkes here down to Professor Snape."

"Sure thing Professor," The Diggory boy agreed as he scooped up his bag. Lucy looked at Wilkes, "Go wait for Mr. Diggory by the pitch entrance." The boy didn't respond. Instead he walked wordlessly off of the green. One he was gone Lucy faced the class.

"Miss. Ajmail please step up," Lucy said kindly. The young girl did so timidly. "Quidditch is a sport played on brooms. Each team has seven people, the Keeper, three Chasers, two Beaters and Seeker. The Chasers throw the Quaffle to each other and try and get it through one of the hoops to score a goal. Ten points every time the Quaffle goes through one of the hoops—" Lucy looked at the young girl and then the rest of the class to make sure those who hadn't heard of the sport were following along, they all were. "Now, there's another player on each side who's called the Keeper, they keep the Chasers from scoring. Then the beaters are two people— each side had two —who have bats, they have these balls called Bludgers. The Bludgers rocket around and try to knock players off their brooms, it's the beaters job to make sure that doesn't happen. Last but not least is the Seeker—that's what I was. See the Seekers only job is to catch the golden snitch, it's a tiny golden ball the size of a jawbreaker that's worth one hundred and fifty points. It's also the only way the game ends."

"If it's worth so much why do other people try to score the Quaffle?" Tahani wondered.

"That is an excellent question Tahani, see sometimes games last for days so the score will be so close the only real tie breaker is that little ball. Also on the other hand sometimes games don't even last five minutes. The whole point of the snitch is less common sense and more dramatic flare I suppose," Lucy grinned.

"Oh, okay, thank you."

"You're very welcome."

"If we can can we go back to the fact you said you were sixteen?" A Slytherin who'd thrown her hand up asked mid sentence, "Did you complete your seventh year?"

"I did, Miss?"

"Caitlin Lou." Lucy nodded.

"I did complete my seventh year, with full marks mind you, but because my birthday is right around Christmas I was still sixteen. When's your birthday Miss. Lou?"

"April."

"Who has birthdays this semester?" Lucy asked. Several hands shot up, "All of you should see me after class so I can get those dates down, we don't want to not do anything on those birthdays." The several children cheered.

"Mrs?" A female Slytherin asked.

"Yes?"

"Amanda Perks, why did become a flying instructor if you were on a Quidditch team? Is it cause Sirius Black is your brother?" For the second time that morning Lucy felt her stomach drop.

"He's not my brother Miss. Perks," "Brother is a title that shows there's an emotional attachment," Lucy had once told in reply Bill when he asked hey she always called him her sibling, never her brother, "But we are related."

"But did you coming here have anything to do with that?" Amanda Perks pressed.

"Why?" Lucy asked, "Hoping when they catch him I'll leave?" Amanda felt her face burn as the class giggled.

"No, I just, I'm sorry."

"It's alright Miss. Perks you were curious, though I will give you some advice, one Slytherin to another, don't always be obvious when asking your questions. Slyness is a house trait for a reason." Amanda Perks nodded.

"Good," Lucy smiled, "Now though well just be working on theory and safety for now I'd like to know who here has flown a broom before?" Only five hands raised.

"Okay well that is easily fixable. So who knows how to properly fall?" A dark curly haired boy from the middle of the crowd of first years raised his hand.

"Yes Mr?"

"Jacobi." Lucy waved him forward.

"Now Mr. Jacobi if you were going to trip and fall how would you put your hands out in front of you?" Lucy asked. Jacobi out his hands straight out in front of him like any normal person would, Lucy smiled at him reassuringly.

"Do you think that's how you catch yourself if you fall from a broom?"

The young Slytherins eyebrows creamed together. "Is that a trick question?"

"No," Lucy shook her head, "But fair assumption, now I need everyone's undivided attention because you will without a doubt need this when you start flying—if you fall off your broom you do not put your hands out in front of you, your arms will probably break like that. If you fall off your broom you do this—" Lucy out her forearms against her face and tucked her head, her palms flat against the top of her head.

"Everyone please form a single filled line and do that for me." It took a moment for all twenty five of them to line up and another thirty to do what she had done, and for the most part, as Lucy walked down the line, every so often flattening a fist against the top of the head, her students had gotten it.

"Great!" Lucy said, "Five points to Slytherin for Mr. Jacobi's demonstration and another five to both Ravenclaw and Slytherin for being so good so far."

"Now onto hair care and other ways not to die or cause extensive damage to yourself." Lucy almost laughed at the frightful looks. No wonder Madam Hooch loved her job, scaring children is more fun then it's made out to be!

**...**

"You swore at a student?" Sprout hissed at lunch as Lucy took her spot between her and Lupin. Lupin choked on his tea.

"What—which student says that?" Lucy asked, her eyes narrowed as she stated down an obvious pair of red headed twins.

"Have you sworn at more than one student today?" Sprout asked shrilly. Lucy gulped.

"No? Okay fine I did. But I feel like because when they were five and Fred put frog guts in one boot and George pissed in the other I should legally be allowed to call them shitheads."

"Oh my Merlin," Sprout rubbed her temples. Lupin shot Lucy a look of contempt.

"McGonagall and Severus are on a tirade," Lupin said, "They claim yowasur swore at a first year. They're also claiming you threatened them."

"What? No! I swore to him? Honestly that's a misunderstanding!" Lucy cried, she looked towards a mumbling Professor Sprout who debated on whether she could clean out Lucy's mouth despite the fact she was a grown witch now.

"Professor Sprout it's not as it sounds I swear. In my first class today a boy used a certain word—"

"—What kind of word?" Sprout wondered.

"A not so nice word used for muggleborns," Lucy said. Both Lupin and Sprout sucked in sharp breaths through their noses. "So I told him and the the class," Lucy specified, "Shit like that wouldn't be tolerated." Sprouts tongue caught between her teeth.

"And the threat?"

"I told the class if something like that happened in front of me again I'd give them to Filch and have him _hangthembytheirtoesinthedungoen_." Lucy muttered. Sprout slouched back in her chair, mumbling the word Helga while on the other side of her Lupin shook his head.

"It's a fair threat I'm fully ready to fulfill should bullshit like that happen in front of me again."

"What did I say about terrorizing the students?"

"I'm not, Snape still has his job I'm just being clear on the fact I won't let bullying happen in my class," Lucy said firmly.

"There's better ways to get through to children," Sprout implored, Lucy shook her head.

"I don't agree Professor, certain children, they're too far gone by the time they reach these doors and the only kind of punishment they'll ever understand is a harsh one."

"You weren't," Sprout protested. Lupin ears perked up.

"That's only because most of the time my mother was too crazed to brainwash me by the time the only person who protected me against her died," Lucy said tenderly Sprout frowned deeply and from her peripheral view Lucy saw Lupin tension.

"If it makes you feel better next time something like that happens I won't threaten them with Filch and the dungeons."

"Thank you."

"No promises on the swearing though."

Sprout sighed, "Fine."

* * *

**September 8, 1993**

Professors had always patrolled the corridors after curfew, Lucy and Bill and their others friends knew that fact very well. But it was because of the extremely dangerous Sirius Black who wanted to murder a student Dumbledore had paired two Professors per patrol. It had just been Lucy's luck that every eight days she was to pair up with Lupin while Sinestra and Snape patrolled the other half of the castle.

_I suppose this could be worse,_ Lucy thought wearily as she and Lupin passed the alcove she'd once found Charlie and Mia in, _I could be paired with Snape._

"So," Lucy asked, "You were a Gryffindor? What was McGonagall like as a Head of House?"

"Good. And Slughorn?"

"My first year was after he retired, my Head of House was Snape. Who by the way made my life a living hell, which is why once Dora came here I basically spent all my time either with Bill or in the Hufflepuff common room."

Lupin breathed loudly, not commenting, just looking straight ahead of him.

Lucy sighed. "What made you take the job from Dumbledore? Word is it's jinxed."

"I like Defense against the Dark arts," Lupin said curtly. "What made you take your position, it's not as if you need the money," he said snidely. Lucy's fingernails bit into the palm of her hand.

"I don't like sitting around and doing nothing. Ted said, before I was offered the position, I could come visit and help him around the house. Apparently it gets lonely with Dora living with Penny and Andy pulling as many shifts as needed at the hospital."

"Andy as in Andromeda?"

"You know my cousin?" Lupin s teeth scraped across his lips.

"I met her a few times." Lucy looked up at Lupin. Though his hair and mustache had patches of grey and the scars on his face made him seem older Lucy could guess he wasn't more than ten years older.

Suddenly it all made sense; why he hated her. He knew one of her brothers, perhaps both of them. He had been fooled once. Suddenly Lucy became angry. Fire shot through her veins as she reminded herself not to strangle him. Had she not proved she was nothing like either of her brothers? Like her cousin Bellatrix?

She gave publically to muggle born charities and the to the Creature-Induced injury wing at St. Mungos. She helped save the school years ago and she didn't murder innocent people—hadn't she proved her soul wasn't as Black as her name?

"So who's friend were you?" Lucy asked evenly. "You said you met Andy a few times so it wasn't Araminta—" Lucy's lips twitched into a frown at the mention of her deceased cousin, "—And it definitely wasn't Bellatrix or Narcissa so who was it? Sirius or Reggie?"

Lupin jaw clenched. "It's none of your business," he gritted out.

"Maybe not. But hey they're both terrible people so it's no wonder you're such a massive tosspot to me, you've meet one Black so we must be all the same," Lucy bit back.

"I never said that," Lupin practically growled.

"You didn't have to," Lucy told him, "You were pleasant to me before you found out I was a Black and then? Nothing but a hypocritical wanker."

"Excuse me?" Lupin stopped and spun to glare down at Lucy. Lucy, only half a head shorter glared right back up.

"You heard me, hypocritical wanker," Lucy hissed. "I've heard nothing but horror stories of Feier Greyback and others like you—" Lucy's sharp fingernail dug into Lupin chest as she poked at him, "—And yet when I found out what you were I didn't even blink because I know what it's like to be judged for something someone else did and yet you've nothing but snap and belittle and be rude to me!"

Lucy's lips puckered inwards And Lupins shoulders dropped.

"I haven't meant too, I just—I was friends, best friends with James Potter," Lupin said. Lucy felt the familiar sting of envy at the mention of the name. "I let him down when I couldn't save either him or Lily from your brother. I won't fail them again by not saving Harry."

Lucy understood, but an angry flame still licked at her heart.

"Ginny Weasley is practically my little sister, I helped her learn to tie her shoes and how to read and I protected her from nightmares when neither Bill or Charlie could console her. Harry Potter saved her life last year by risking his. Ronald and Meiri, they're like the little brother and sister I never asked for but can't help but love with every fiber of my being and the two of them love that boy. So listen clearly when I say this Lupin, I would die for that boy in a heartbeat."

"You mean that?" Lupin murmured.

"Every bit." Ron and Meiri had followed Harry to face You-Know-Who at only eleven. They had done so again the year before. Lucy knew that when— because after two years there were no ifs —Harry Potter were to face her brother the pair of them would be right there next to the boy savior. She also knew if it meant protecting them, she would kill Sirius where he stood without losing a wink of sleep over it.

Lupin stuck his hand out. "Remus Lupin, Defense against the Dark Arts Professor." Lucy placed her hand in his own,

"Lucy Black, flying instructor. Pleasure to meet you Mr. Lupin."

* * *

**September 13, 1993**

When Lucy sat down at breakfast between Remus and Sprout and she smiled at the werewolf he returned the gesture genuinely.

"Morning," Lucy poured herself a cup of orange juice before wrinkling her nose at Remus' black coffee.

"How is it that you love sweets but drink that vile shit?"

"Lucy!" Sprout chastised. Lucy turned pink only to throw Remus a dirty look when he snickered into his mug.

"Sorry ma'am," the pure blood muttered.

"I should wash out your mouth again," Sprout muttered spooning her apple-cinnamon into her mouth.

"Again?" Lupin wondered with a brow raised.

"My seventh year Professor Sprout caught Dora and I teaching the first its swears and—"

"—I washed out both your mouths."

"Dora reckons she hasn't been able to taste the same since."

"And you?"

"Sometimes I have nightmares and wake up tasting soap," Lucy smirked. Remus snorted only to splutter as coffee shot up his nose, sending both Lucy and Professor Sprout into fits of laughter. The male Professor shot both women a dry look.

He opened his mouth to saw something when a large Pharaoh eagle owl swooped down in front of Lucy and dropped a letter onto the stack of nicely cut toast. The owl landed on the back of Lucy's chair.

Both Professor Sprout And Remus eyed the bird. It's orange eyes resembled lit pumpkins and as it preened the three Professors caught whiff of the scent of sand.

"Hello Tut," Lucy cooed up at the owl, tossing him a scrap of bacon, which he expertly caught in his shark beak. "Who's a pretty bird?" Lucy cooed. Tut fluffed his feathers and squawked in appreciation.

Lucy, as Tut sailed off her chair, stealing another piece of bacon and then out the window, reached for the letter.

_To my favorite Professor;_ the word favorite was crossed out and underneath the request to not tell McGonagall was written underneath.

Lupin, looking over Lucy's shoulder snorted.

"Who's that from?" Lucy opened the letter,

"Bill, he's—" Lucy scanned over the letter, "asking to spend Christmas together this year."

"Christmas plans this early?" Lupin asked.

"Christmas Eve. Christmas day I usually host a party for friends and the team and stuff only this year he and Dora are fighting because two years ago was his Christmas only he went to Romania so I went to Andy's and the year after that I was sick so I didn't go anywhere so this year they're both demanding I spend Christmas at theirs," Lucy explained with a smile.

"Sounds like a tough choice," Lupin quipped. It is.

"You haven't had Mrs. Weasleys roast nor Teds pudding."

"Edward still makes his pudding?" Sprout asked jovially.

"You've had it?" Sprout hummed. She could remember catching the young man sneaking into the kitchens on Christmas Eve to make pudding for hey all the elves who had worked so hard on the Christmas eve feast. He had then made her, her own bowl because he thought the elves should have something of their own.

"What's so good about this pudding?" Remus wondered if it was anything like the sweet dumpling like deserts James used to make he could understand. Back before that awful night James had used to make Modak for Christmas. Modak was a Hindi recipe Mrs. Potter had shown him how to make a child.

"It's Kentucky banana pudding, basically you have these hard sugar cookies and freshly sliced banana and you layer it over vanilla pudding which wouldn't taste so good—"

"But it does," Sprout said. Lucy nodded.

"Hopefully you'll bring me back some," Remus says.

"If there's any left," Lucy says only to stop mid nod, "Also if I can bare to part with the leftovers. I'm a sucker for homemade food."

"That good to know," Remus said, "Good to know."

**...**

Lucy Black, with her nimbus thrown over her shoulder walked happily to her office. She had been flying on the pitch only to clear out when she caught sight of a storm approaching. While Lucy had countlessly proven she had no problem flying in rain, snow or hail, she was no use to her students sick.

Lucy turned the corner of where her tiny office was when she saw three boys, two large boys and once unmistakable Draco Malfoy leering over one of her Hufflepuff first years. Ruthie Flowers. The girl was shaking, her back was pressed against the wall and from what Lucy could see one of the boys— Crabbe or Goyle, she wasn't sure —had his wand pulled.

"Oi!" Lucy shouted, the three third year Slytherins jumped. Lucy stormed down the corridor. "What the bloody hell is going on here?" She asked the three boys, she positioned herself in front of little Ruthie.

Draco glared up at her, though he could hardly remember his mother's cousin he had heard his father talk— rant —about her enough.

"Nothing Professor," The blonde boy gritted out. Lucy turned to look at Ruthie,

"Is that true Ruthie?"

"I—" the boys glared from behind Lucy's back. "I—" the girl blinked back tears.

Lucy knelt down and set a hand lightly on the girls shoulder. "Ruthie look at me love, just tell me the truth okay, nothing will happen to you. I promise."

"They said they saw me petting the thresals, they called me names."

"We did not!" Draco Malfoy rebuked. Lucy, with the same Black family glare his mother possessed, shot the boy a look, he snapped his jaw shut.

"What kind of names?"

"Freaky Flowers! They said I must be a freak because that's what my father is." It took Lucy a moment to remember who her father was; Justin Flowers, a wealthy inventor who used his money to fund his campaigns for centaur and giant and werewolf rights.

"Well Ruthie these boys are wrong," Lucy stood up. "Your father is not a freak—" each of the boys scoffed, "They do however have detention to night."

"Professor Snape said you can't give us detention," Draco smiled smarmly, as if he'd gotten on over on her. Lucy glared at the boy; he was too much like his father not to make her feel the least bit ill.

"Maybe not but as the schools flying instructor I do over see Quidditch." The boy paled, his eyes wide with fear. "Your capitan is Marcus Flint isn't it?" Lucy asked rhetorically.

"Yes."

"Good, I'll speak with him before dinner," Lucy said, her chin held high, looking every bit of Lady Black she could in front of the boys who'd with no doubt write to their fathers, "Come along Ruthie, I have chocolate chip cookies in my office."

...

Lucy's office was small, the door behind her desk lead to her room, which was, thankfully, larger than the cluttered Instructors office. In the corner of the room she had a row of flinging cabinets full of past Quidditch games, their outcomes and the players who had participated. The files on the students who were currently playing resided in the top right hand drawer of her desk; her grading book was kept locked in the left hand side. Her desk was covered in letters, none of them contained jinxes or poisonous substances, just angry, threatening words. On the wall hung her brooms; the first broom she had ever owned, the first brooms she had used to play her games- both the first game in her second year and professonaly -and lastly, while she had given Ron her old Cleansweep when she'd gotten her first Nimbus— Molly had protested a seven year old Ron was far too young for the newest, fastest racing broom —she had her brother Regulus' shooting star encased in glass, his captain badge pinned to the red velvet inside the case.

The chair behind her desk was one Lucy had brought from home, it was a cushy muggle chair with wheels on the bottom.

The chairs in front of her desk were less chairs then they were cushioned stools, each one occupied by that years Quidditch Captain. Oliver Wood still looked as star stuck as he had the first day of classes, as did Roger Davies. Lucy could clearly remember the boys older brother constantly walking out of her own Prefects dorm in the early mornings before scolding her for leaving her homework until last minute. Cedric Diggory, the boy she had award points to that first day sat awkwardly on the stool, his legs far too long. And Marcus Flint, who sat next to Wood and Davies keep taking peeks at Wood before quickly looking away, the tips of his ears pink.

"Hi boys," Lucy smiled, she offered each of them a cookie—they all accepted with gracious thank yous and hello backs. "Now none of you are in trouble, let me just say that, I know when I was a kid whenever I got called to a Professor's office I'd get all worried even if I hadn't done anything."

"Then why are we here?" Flint asked.

"Well, as much as I loved Madam Hooch, she didn't nearly set as many rules as she should have."

"Rules? Like what?" Oliver Wood questioned.

"Bullying," Lucy said, she looked at Flint, "I caught your seeker and his mates terrorizing one of my first year Hufflepuffs earlier today and I wanted to make something clear, I do not like bullying." Lucy held the boy's gaze and then looked at each of the boys. "The next time this happens, whether I have to hear about it or it happens in front of me, I will take that student off the team and ban from playing for the rest of the season, is that clear?" Flint paled.

"Define bullying Professor," Oliver asked. Lucy knew where his thoughts were jumping too.

"Targeting a student because of their blood, family ties and or other things they cannot help. For example today Mr. Malfoy and his friends were bullying Miss. Flowers because of her fathers beliefs, that is bullying and will result in a ban. Use of the M-word is bullying and will result in the confiscation of the students broom. Making fun of a student because they're poorer or not as smart will result in a ban."

"What about houses?" Flint asked, "My first years get picked on because they're Slytherin."

"I know Mr. Flint, I was a Slytherin too, I remember well. Bullying students based on their house— locking them in dungeons or broom closets will result in a ban as well."

"Anything else?" Diggory asked politely. He didn't have to worry because he knew no one on his team did any of that.

"Grades." One again Flint pales.

"Now I know you're repeating your year Mr. Flint, and you were once again rewarded your title, I won't take that away from you if— and this goes for everyone, to play quidditch you must —maintain an E in all your main classes, and at least an A in your electives."

"What if the student has trouble doing so?" Flint wondered, everyone in the room knew he was speaking about himself, though they all pretended they didn't.

"I'll assign them a tutor."

"If they're not comfortable with that? Some parents find it shameful." Lucy smiled kindly at Flint.

"I'll tutor them myself then, no student should suffer just to appease their parents, I won't let that happen. Now unless any of you have any questions your free to go." Diggory was the first one out of the room, followed by Davies and the Wood and then Flint who paused at the door frame.

"Professor?"

"Yes Mr. Flint?"

"If I needed a tutor?"

"Your father would be none the wiser." Flint smiled at Lucy. It looked awkward and pained; Lucy supposed he didn't do it much.

"Thank you Professor."

"You're welcome Mr. Flint."

* * *

**September 24, 1993**

For the third time that year Lucy and Remus were patrolling the corridors. Unlike the first time there was no painfully awkward silence at the start, nor was there any fighting. Instead the pair chattered on about different things; the last time they had paroled it was about Muggle University, Remus had gone in the years following the war and obtained a teaching degree. This time they spoke of Lucy's school year.

"In the beginning of the year you said you helped find and close the Cursed Vaults?" Remus asked.

"I did."

"How was that?" Remus asked amazed, back when he had been in school he and his friends— an ache shot through him at the thought of those happy days —had done crazy things but they had never imagined the Cursed Vaults to be real. Peter had suggested they look for the Vaults, and the Chamber as well to map it out. Sirius— Remus' fists firmed into palms —he had claimed those were just tall tails.

"Amazing," Lucy responded, "Frighting. Painful," she chuckled as she remembered the times she had been frozen in cursed ice.

"What was it like? The Vaults?"

"They had these things, Ice Knights," Lucy said, "That would fight you if you tried to get past. The first time Bill took a hit for me, it landed him in the hospital wing for a week."

"He sounds like a great friend."

"He is," Lucy agreed. "No one wanted to be my friend before, they'd all heard about Bellatrix some of them, the older students who'd lost people tended to pick on me. The first week of classes Bill found me crying, he stayed with me until I stopped. He threatened to tell Dumbledore himself if they didn't leave me alone. They didn't," Lucy smiled faintly.

"And did Bill tell Dumbledore?" Remus asked.

"He tried, he didn't know the password so he had me wait with him outside that gargoyle for like eight hours until Professor Flitwick found us."

"And after?" Remus asked hesitantly. Lucy knew what he had meant, And after Sirius went and blew up a block?

"He was waiting for me outside of Dumbledore's office. Everyone was so happy You-Know-Who was gone, Bill was too, his uncles had been killed only a few months prior, and I was sure he was there to tell me he hated me."

"He didn't?"

"He hugged me. He-my-Siri-him, he had seen me in Diagon Alley when I went shopping for school supplies. He promised me to get me away from my mother, that we could be a real family. Bill knew that and do you know what Bill told me?" Remus, tight lipped and putty eyed shook his head.

"That we could be a family. That he'd ask him mum to bring me home for Christmas, if she said no he'd spend his holidays here, be he swore he'd be my family."

"He sounds like an amazing person."

"He is. He has the kindest heart of anyone I know. The Weasleys, they opened up their home for me; not even Andromeda wanted to do that at first. It wasn't until my sixth year that Andy started to warm up."

"And what about your mother?" Remus asked, "Didn't she have anything to say about you befriend the Weasley."

"No offense Remus but you have to be at least a level eight friend to hear about my mommy issues," Lucy quipped. Remus snorted and nodded, understandably. He could see the familiar insecure look in her eyes.

"None taken."

* * *

**September 29, 1993**

Five nights later Lucy sat at the Hogwarts staff table eating her dinner, looking at Remus' empty seat as if she expected him to appear out of thin air.

"Hey Professor," Lucy wondered to Sprout, "Where's Remus?" Professor Sprout frowned sympathetically and leaned in.

"It's the night before the full moon deary, Remus isn't feeling the best." Lucy frowned too. She had noticed the mustached man starting to grow pale and tired looking; she had thought maybe perhaps he had caught a bug. She hadn't realized that it was a side effect of the moons hold over him.

"Is he getting dinner brought up?" Lucy wondered. Sprout shrugged.

"Perhaps." Lucy pursed her lips together before grabbing his plate and stacking the foods she had seen him eating over the past month onto it. She piled bloody steak onto it and green beans and mashed potatoes as well, along with corn and some chicken.

"I'm going to take this up to him," Lucy told Sprout before taking the plate and walking out of the hall.

She knew like her room Remus was connected to his office which was only up the stairs from his classroom.

The Defense room looks different in the dark, Lucy thought. It looks bigger. The room seemed longer, maybe because of the desks shadows stretching across the length of the room.

Lucy knocked on his office door, unsure if he'd be grading papers while trying not to think of his impending transformation or laying in bed, sick and in pain.

"Please go away, I'm not feeling well at the moment. If you have a question feel free to come back on Monday morning," Remus muffled voice called out through the door.

"Remus it's Lucy, I brought you food. Sprout wasn't sure if you were having your brought up—" the office door opened to reveal Remus Lupin. Lucy focused on his eyes; not the sliver of boxer visible from his scrunched up tee shirt and loose pajama pants, and not his messed up hair that looked like it had had fingers constantly run through it, his tired eyes that made something inside such reach out and promise him it'd be okay. "—And uh, well," she gulped, "I didn't want you to starve."

Remus smiled. He leaned on the frame and gently took the food from her, his fingers brushed against the back of her hand. If he felt the same sparks of warmth Lucy did he did not show it. She however did; she turned a dark red.

"Thank you Lucy, it's very kind of you."

"You're welcome, what are friends for?" Lucy asked. While Lucy knew that he did not visibly hate her and the pair could joke around between classes and on payrolls she wasn't sure he could consider her a friend. She hoped he did.

"What are friends for," Remus parroted back firmly. Lucy grinned at him, Remus couldn't help but grin back.

"As your friend do you mind me saying you look like shit."

"Only if as your friend I can say you don't," Remus replied. There was a glint in his eyes that Lucy couldn't make out. She brushed her hair from her face.

"Thank you Remus," she looked past him and saw work spread across his desk. Essays and tests, some marked but most not. "Now eat that and go to bed. You need your beauty sleep if you're going to look half as beautiful as me."

"I can only hope can't I?" Remus teased before his grin softened. "But really Lucy, thank you."

"Like I said, what are friends for?" Something in Lucy, which she chose to ignore, scoffed. _Friends, right._

* * *

**A/N : PLEASE LEAVE ME COMMENTS **


	4. October 1993 - chapter four

**October 2, 1993**

Lucy Black stood on her broom as if it were a muggle skateboard, children huddled in the stands and watched her. Lucy, about to hit the wall of the stands tipped the broom up by putting her weight on her back foot. She could hear the collective gasp the students sucked in as she started to fall off her vertical broom.

Lucy's hand shot out to grab the shaft of the broom, her right calf snaked around it and pulled her closer. If there had been clouds Lucy would have cut through them like a steak knife to untoasted bread.

And then, she pointed her broom down. She tucked herself into the magical object, arms and legs tightly folded as she shot towards the ground.

If she were to die no one would mourn her, Dora and Bill might be sad but no one would mourn her like she mourned Regulus. No one's soul would hammer in pain like hers did. No one would look in a mirror and feel haunted because what stared back at them was not just their own reflection. The ground got closer and Lucy suspected that if she died no one would care. She'd be putting an end to the Black family name. The Wizarding world would celebrate. The Weasleys would get her fortune and title as so stated in her will and everything would go on.

The students in the stands leaned forward on the edge of their seats. And ugly voice in the back of Lucy's head, one that sounded too much like her own mother's voice crowed. Give them a show.

"PULL UP!" A man's panicked voice shouted. Mechanically, unthinkingly, Lucy did so, she could feel the tips of grass blades cut across her knuckles as she evened out.

Lucy did not dismount her broom. She did not fully stop and place one foot on the ground like she preached to her first years. Instead once she reached the goal posts furthest from the entrance she flopped off her broom and onto the sandy bank. Her arms outstretched and her eyes unblinkingly turned up towards the sky. Her broom laid idly next to her.

Lucy could hear the excited chatter amounts the stampeding children. Though the first person to reach her was not a jubilant student but instead a haggard, heavily breathing Defense Professor.

"What the fuck!" He bore down at her, he dropped to his knees, his pupils blown wide with panic. Lucy pushed herself up.

"What?" Students surrounded them, each of them talking a mile a minute and yet Lucy's full attention was on Remus Lupin. His hands were shaking, he held them out as if to grab her shoulders before withdrawing them back to his side.

"What the hell was that? You could have died!"

"I was feinting," Lucy blinked.

"It was awesome Professor!" A boy, a second year Gryffindor whos camera hung around his neck cheered.

"It—It was dangerous!" Remus spluttered. Lucy stood up, though as she did Remus grabbed onto her arm, whether it were to raise her or himself Lucy wasn't sure either of them knew.

"It's her signature move Professor!" A Ravenclaw girl protested, Lucy knew her to be the Ravenclaw seeker Cho Chang. She had gone to Lucy the first weekend of term and asked for an autograph and tips. "Can you teach us?" Chang asked.

"You can't teach feinting Miss. Chang, it's just something you do in the heat of the moment when a referee or Professor can't stop you and hope you don't die." Remus cleared his throat. "It's something you never ever do because it's dangerous?" Lucy amended weakly. Miss. Chang's eyebrows raised amusedly.

"Can you show us how you did the standing thing then?" Greggs, a Hufflepuff Chaser asked.

"Actually Madam Lucy And I need to speak," Remus voiced, "It's about the grades of a player, " he clarified.

"Right, we can talk in my office if you'd like," Lucy proposed. She picked up her broom, and then turned to the students, "I'm going to my office don't be idiots and try something dangerous, especially for the first time, without someone who knows how to heal cracked skulls and broken necks."

"But they only teach that at St. Mungos, no one here knows how to do that stuff," a student in the fray of the crowd protested.

"Then I think that means don't be an idiot and try feinting or anything," Lucy resorted. Neither she nor he, himself, realized that Remus rested his hand on the small of her back as he led them through the crowd of students.

The students did however. Chang excitedly whispered to Edgecombe who smirked, Creevey, ready to take a picture, looked but didn't understand what the big deal was when he saw Warrington nudge Flint. He took the picture anyway. Wood snickered to Davies and Diggory.

"How are you?" Remus asked as they left the pitch. "Let me carry that," Remus offered.

"Fine," Lucy lied. Remus raised a brow but Lucy remained stoic. "And no thank you, no one touches my brooms."

"Brooms?"

"I have this one, a Nimbus 2000, and my very first Cleansweep 73. No one touches my babies." Remus nodded, he had a trunk full of childhood memories that would, if they were ever damaged or destroyed, kill him.

"Friends don't lie to each other," Remus said.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Lucy told him.

"You're not fine, Sprout and Miss. Prewett already told me otherwise."

"I'm going to kick Meiris ass," Lucy hissed to herself before turning to Remus, "If you already knew why'd you ask."

"Thought maybe you'd give me the courtesy to tell me the truth. Though even if they didn't I would have known the moment I stepped onto the pitch."

"I was feinting, I told you—"

"I know feinting Lucy," Remus said, the pair of them stopped, his pointing a finger at her, "You were going to crash before I said anything."

"So?" Remus blinked.

"So? You could have died!" Remus raised his voice.

"And!" Lucy raised hers, "At least then I wouldn't wake up and look in the mirror and see them! At least then the whole fucking world would leave me alone for once!" Lucy's lip quivered and her eyes filled with icy hot tears. Her heart beat erractly in her chest.

Her voice lowered, "I got a letter this morning, they said they were happy Reggie was dead. He was a monster, and—and they're right you know. He was, he was Death Eater."

"You miss him though," Remus whispered. It wasn't accusingly, it was a soft statement.

"I don't want to." Her brother was a monster, like Sirius he killed people. Like Sirius he left her to fend for herself against their mother, but unlike Sirius he never lied to her. He never betrayed her or promised her false hope, he protected her and cared about her.

Remus wrapped an arm around Lucy's shoulders and another around her waist, she rested her head against the crook of his neck and cried.

The pair sat in Lucy's room, at the tiny table that sat in the corner of the tiny kitchen area. Lupin poured her a cup a tea, only to hesitate when she asked if she wanted sugar.

"If you'd like not to go alone," Lupin said with a cough in his throat, "I could go with you to visit his grave. After my mother died my father and I used to visit on significant occasions."

Lucy shook her head, "There's no grave," she told him, "There wasn't a body so mother didn't think we should waste a plot in the family cemetery."

"If there wasn't a grave how do you know he's dead?"

"Bellatrix and Lucius Malfoy."

_Tiny nine year old Lucy Black should have been asleep up in her room. She should have been clutching the stuffed Chimera her brother had given her as a gift as she dreamed of flying, but she wasn't, because the storm had rattled the entirety of number twelve Grimmauld Place sending the girl on a search for the only person she knew would protect her, Regulus._

_Regulus always complained when she woke him up, scared of either the storm or their mother but he never sent her away. He always welcomed her into his bed, even if he always ended up on the floor after an hour of Lucy kicking him in her sleep._

_Only he wasn't in his room, his bed was neatly made up. The envelope that sat atop the silk seats peaked her curiosity but as the house shook once more Lucy scurried down the stairs. Perhaps Regulus was in the kitchen, eating and chatting with their house elf Kreacher._

_Only Regulus wasn't sitting at the counter eating a late night snack, talking politics to their families elf. Their mother however was in the sitting room. Lucy, from the crack in the door, spied her cousin Bellatrix sitting on the sofa across from her, her other cousin's husband Lucius leaning against the bookshelf._

_"Why are you here Bella? Lucius? Where is my son, he hasn't been home in three days!" Had it been that long? Lucy had only gotten back from seeing the baby her cousin Araminta and her husband Rabstan had had. Lucy hasn't seen her cousin though, Rabstan had told Lucy she was too sick for visitors which was why her holding baby Ophelia was important, Babies need to be held by those who love them._

_"Regulus, imo," Bellatrix said heavily, her voice thick with emotions Lucy didn't know she possessed. Regulus always said their cousin Bella was a basilisk in human skin. "Regulus won't be coming home." Lucy paused._

_Bellatrix was wrong. Regulus he wasn't like Sirius, he wouldn't selfishly leave her to deal with their mother alone. Regulus is a good brother._

_"What do you mean he won't be coming home?" Her mother's tone was sharp, it was also filled with panic._

_"Regulus," Lucius said for the first time that night, "He tried to desert." Walburga Black stilled. She turned a white color akin to the fine tablecloth laid out in the dining room._

_"You're wrong. My son is not a coward, he is alive." Walburga said with conviction. She said it as if she were saying the sky was blue or the Black blood was pure._

_"I wish we were. The Dark Lord told us personally." Lucius didn't seem nearly as destrought as Bellatrix was. Bellatrix who had brought her dear little cousin into the fray. Bellatrix who was responsible, who would have to live with the guilt for the rest of her life._

_"And where is his body then?"_

_"The Dark Lord would not say." Walburga drew her wand in seconds after Bellatrix had whispered that. She cut Lucius so deeply his blood splattered across the spines of the books he was leaning against._

_She turned her wand in Bellatrix who had stood up in alarm and withdrawn her own wand. Lucy couldn't help but notice that for once Bellatrix did not look like she wanted to fight. There was no fire in her eyes just resolution, she would fight if she had to but not before._

_Always pure was their family code but the foundation that Black children were raised on was simple. Blacks stick together. Which was why blood traitors were so much worse; for they went against the first values instilled into the family._

_"Get out," her mother hissed. "Get out and don't come back." It was clear, as Lucius pressed his hand against his bloody side that if Bellatrix were to ever show up on Walburgas doorstep the matriarch would kill her where she stood._

"Can I ask you something?" Remus wondered.

"Of course." He had already seen her cry.

"Why do you miss Regulus?" Remus asked carefully.

"He never lied to me," Lucy shrugged, "He protected me against our mother."

"When we were children your brother had said she didn't hit him or Regulus." So he had been friends with Sirius.

"After he left home my mother was adamant I would never be a blood traitor. Before Reggie's death she used to get my fathers old cane whenever she'd catch me in his room looking through his stuff, Regulus, when he was home, he would step in front of me and refuse to step aside." Remus looked horrified.

"She used to beat you." Lucy shrugged.

"My cousin Andromeda had it worse. Her father used the cruciatus on her when he caught her leaving home. She nearly lost Dora because of it."

"That doesn't—" Remus cut himself off. He could feel himself getting riled up, his throat tightening. He wanted to yell, not at Lucy but at the world.

"Any other memories of your brother?" Remus asked "Any good ones." Lucy smiled faintly.

"He taught me to fly."

_Sirius had left home nearly two week prior. Lucy sat in her room holding the broom he had sworn to teach her to fly, crying. She put a hand in her mouth to stop the sounds of he sobs; if her mother caught her crying over him again—_

_"Lucy?" Lucy saw Regulus standing in her doorway. A duffle bag thrown over his shoulder. She wasn't sure if he was just returning home from the Crouch's or leaving again._

_"Hi Reggie," the five year old wiped her eyes._

_"What's wrong?" Regulus didn't ask to come in, he just did. He sat on the bed next to Lucy, his brows knitting together in confusion and a frown on his face._

_"Sirius promised to teach me how to fly." But he left instead. Regulus clenched his jaw._

_"Where did he promise to teach you?"_

_"On the beach near uncle Alphards summer home, you know the pretty house with the seashells." He did, his uncles summer home held a plethora of good memories for the two Black boys. It had been where they had learned to swim and cheat at cards and where an eight year old Sirius had taught Regulus how to fly. It had been where the runaway himself had been taught by their eccentric uncle. And it was going to be where Lucy learned to fly too._

_"Come on," Regulus said, standing up and leaving his bag on the floor._

_"What why?"_

_"You want to learn to fly don't you?" Lucy nodded, "Then I'll teach you. Besides I'm loads better than Siri anyway."_

_"You are?"_

_"I'm the one on a House team aren't I?" This would have been the instance where Sirius pointed out how it was Jamie who always won though. But here was no Sirius to point that out anymore, he had a new family now so Lucy just nodded, and chirped "Right."_

"I doubt when he was teaching you how to fly he was hoping you would learn to feint," teased Remus.

"God no he'd kill me," after Sirius left and Regulus had stepped up he hadn't let Lucy do anything dangerous.

"Why cause it's dangerous?" Remus laughed. Lucy, snickering as well kicked his shin under the table causing the man to wince. As her snickering died down and her smile faded into the ghost of one Lucy looked at her hands wishfully.

"He would have made a good father." His journal had stated he wanted three of his own as well. He would have used Lucretia as his first daughters middle name.

"I vaguely remember seeing him with a girlfriend at school," Remus hummed.

"Claudia Burke," Lucy said, "They met when they were kids. She pushed him into a fountain at a garden party when they were seven and after that he followed her around like a puppy, she was a sweetheart. She always snuck me sweets when she came over."

"What happened to her?" Remus asked with a grin.

"She moved, after Reggie—after his death she left the country. Last I heard she's living in Venice, she owns her own restaurant."

"You didn't keep in touch?" Remus wondered, Lucy shook her head, a shameful glint twinkled in her eyes.

"I read Reggie's journal a lot, he deserted for her. He didn't believe in that stuff anymore, claimed he had been misguided. He wrote that he didn't want any kids they'd have together having a Death Eater as a father, thinking murdering for blood purity was right. I blamed her, loudly. My mother followed suit, she hexed the poor girl so badly—I've never been able to bring myself to apologize."

"It wasn't your fault, you were what, nine? Your brother had died Lucy, you needed someone to blame."

"You think so?" Lucy asked lowly. Remus reached across the table and took her hand in his.

"I know so," he told her.

As the conversation moved on to other fond memories of a Regulus, neither Lucy or Remus moved their hands.

* * *

**October 7, 1993**

Hagrid was falling asleep in his chair as Lucy left, half open and thoroughly marked books were strewn across his large table. The pair of them had talked about his Hippogriffs trial, one, which Lucy knew, would be rigged in her cousin-in-laws favor.

Lucy had been raised knowing the ins and outs of the Ministries legal system. By eight she could recite the laws and her rights and by ten her aunt Durella had made sure she knew which members of the court were on the take and that money and the weight of certain names made the world go around. Which was why, as terrible as it was to say if it had been another student— a half blood or muggleborn —who had been scratched then the creature had a chance to live.

But no, it had scratched her cousins boy; a boy with a father who always got what he wanted. And if it was the Hippogriffs head Lucius Malfoy wanted, it was the creatures head he would get.

Lucy, as the sun set and the dark purple of the sky seem to swallow the pink and blue hues whole, stumbled up the path that lead back to the castle. Lucy was halfway to the castle when a freezing chill ran up her spin. She could feel the hair on the back of her neck stand on its ends and dread settle heavily in her stomach.

Lucy pulled out her wand as she hurried up the path. Lucy was only twenty yards away from the castle entrance when a cloaked figure swooped down in front of her path. Lucy stumbled back, her wand pointed out straight in front of her.

Lucy could hear her mother's voice, the venomous sneer and the harsh I'm doing this for your own good echo in the back of her mind.

Lucy thought of Bill hugging her, promising that they could be a family. "Expecto Patronum!" A faint glow erupted from the top of her wand but it did nothing to deter the guard. Lucy stumbled back. She thought of Andromeda apologizing and of the drawings Ron and Meiri and Ginny made as children, including her in their family as their older sister. "Expecto Patronum!" The tip glowed brighter but once again it did nothing.

Lucy thought of—the Azkaban guard got closer and all Lucy could seem to think of was her mother and her fathers cane and the crazed episodes her mother would fly into after her brother's death. She thought of Sirius leaving and his face in the paper that November morning. Of hearing of Regulus's death. Of seeing her cousin Araminta in a casket, so young and yet looking healthier in death then she ever had in life. She thought of dying as her world faded to black.

She could have sworn she heard Remus' voice as she lost consciousness.

_Lucy Black was hiding in a hall closet. Her knees drawn close to her chest as she heard her mother shouting for her, demanding to know where Regulus was. Lucy knew that when she explained her brother was dead her mother— in lue of the wand she had ordered to Kreature to hide and not return —would pick up the closest thing she could find and lob it at Lucy's head. The last time it had been a heavy glass ashtray that had belonged to her father's father. The time before that an old vase that her great great grandmother had been given at her wedding._

_The door flew open and Lucy screamed in terror before screaming out in pain her mother dragged her by her hair out of the closet._

_"Where is your brother!" Her mother screeched. Lucy clawed at her mother's hands. Lucy struggled to keep up with her mothers furious steps in order to to be dragged behind._

_"I don't know!"_

_"Don't lie to me, you wouldn't have hidden if you didn't know now where is he!"_

_"I swear I don't!" Lucy lied. Her mother stopped walking and let go of Lucy's hair. Lucy looked up at her mother frightened when the woman bearded down at Lucy and slapped her hard enough to send the girl to the ground. Walburgas nails scratched Lucy's face leaving a bloody cut along the young girls cheek bone._

_"I know you know where he is!"_

_"He's dead! Mother you know this!" Lucky cried looking up at her mother. They were at the top of the stairs, there was nothing to throw at Lucy, nothing to beat her with._

_"Liar!" And then she was falling. She should have known her mother wouldn't let the lack of a weapon stop her._

_Lucy put her arms in front of her face, about to hit the landing. Lucy hit the wood—_

Lucy shot up in bed. Not the bed in her room, but rather a bed in the Hogwarts hospital wing, but bed all the same. Not the couch in the sitting room Kreature had dragged her too all those years ago in order to heal her, but a cot in the Hogwarts hospital wing. She was safe, she was twenty two and her mother had been dead for seven years. She was safe.

Remus looked up from his papers, "You're awake." He sounded breathless as he set the papers aside and moved from the chair to sit on the edge of the cot.

"I—" Lucy looked around wildly, she was so confused. "What happened." She felt cold from the inside out, almost as if someone had cast glacius on only her insides.

"A dementor. It probably thought you were Sirius." Lucy could a vaguely remember that. She could hazily recall leaving Hagrid home with a heavy heart and then—"You saved me," Lucy said, "I thought I heard you." She muttered as an afterthought.

"You did, it was getting dark out and neither you or Hagrid were at dinner, I got worried. When I went to see if you were still with him I," Lupin frowned, "I saw it standing over you. When you didn't wake up I thought perhaps I was too late."

"You weren't," Lucy told him, her hand found his in the dark, warmth spread through her. She squeezed it thankfully. "You saved my life Remus."

"You would have done the same for me," Remus said bashfully.

"No I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have been able to." Remus nodded,

"Right you can't produce a patronus." Lucy shook her head quietly. Remus handed her a bar of chocolate, "Eat this." Lucy did. She immediately started to feel warmer.

"Thank you," Lucy rawly, genuinely, "Really, I owe you." Lucy held Remus' eyes. How had she not noticed how beautiful they were? They were a a warm hazel with flecks of gold splattered randomly in his iris. His nose was bent and had a thin scar running over the bridge—his other scar stretched from his the corner of his right eye down the length of his sharp jaw stopping at the corner of his lips.

His lips—Lucy's eyes flashed from his thin lips, ignoring the small voice telling her to lean in, and instead focused on the empty space next to his head. Remus quickly jerked back a second later, his face and ears were a burning hot to the touch kind of red. A tight smile played on his lips, his Adam's apple jumped up and down.

"Maybe you can make it up to me by helping me grade fifth year papers?"

"You got it hero."

* * *

**October 16, 1993**

Lucy sat in her office looking over players grades after breakfast when a knock came from her door.

"Who is it?"

"George! Just George." Lucy's eyebrows raised at that. Worry gnawed at her gut, _Since when do the twins separate?_ She wondered.

"Come in Georgie." George Weasley had always been the shyer of the Weasley twins, while both of them were outgoing human Bludgers, Fred was more do first think later type of boy. George however was the kind of boy who had an eighteen step plan at the ready.

"What's wrong Georgie?" George blushed,

"Come on Luce I'm not nine anymore," he grumbled as he took a seat in one of the stools in front of her.

"Yeah but you came to me so spill it Georgie."

"You can't tell Bill or Charlie or mum—you cannot tell mum or Fred, especially Fred and mum." Lucy sat up straighter, concerned. Had he done something? Mentally Lucy thought of the list of Judges both on the take and easily intimidated.

"Of course, now what happened."

"Nothing happened per say, I just, I need advice." Lucy let her shoulders sag. Thank Merlin. Though Lucy would have been willing to buy off and scare whoever she needed she was grateful she didn't need too.

"What kind of advice?" Lucy wondered.

"Girl trouble advice." Lucy leaned forward interested; she wondered what, besides being a girl, made the Weasley boy's flock to her with their girl troubles. Charlie had gone to both her and Bill back before he and Mia had gotten together, Percy had written to her the year before asking how he knew a girl liked him back and now ickkle Georgie!

"What kind of Girl trouble?" Lucy smirked. George squirmed.

"Okay so hypothetically—" Lucy snorted, "HYPOTHETICALLY I like a girl I shouldn't, what should I do?"

"What kind of girl shouldn't you like?"

"A Slytherin." Lucy grabbed a crumpled up piece of parchment and threw it at George.

"In case you forget you git, Mia and I were Slytherins."

"But you're different— she's —dad would blow a gasket," George stressed. Lucy's eyes narrowed. The only person. Arthur Weasley blew gaskets over was Lucius Malfoy. Meaning—

"Ophelia you like Ophelia!"

"Hypothetically!" George argued.

"Ophelia is a sweet girl, besides she only lives with a Cissy and that shit head half of the time over breaks anyway, rest of the time she's with Andy and Ted, so technically your dad would only blow half a gasket." George looked like he considered her words.

"Sides it only matters if she likes you back," Lucy stated. George bit his lip.

"Ophelia likes you back?"

"We've been meeting up and hanging out in secret the past two years and she kissed me the other night."

"And what did you do?"

"I ran away." Lucy flicked her wand and all the crumpled hate mail overflowing from her wastebin flew at George.

"Merlin woman!" A letter hit his left ear.

"Don't you Merlin woman me George Weasley—Merlin yourself, you git! You don't run away from a girl when she kisses you! Charlie wasn't this bad!" George threw her a look of contempt when the last balled up letter bounced off the of side his head.

"I didn't mean to I just thought of how everyone would react!"

"Who cares! Georgie do you like Ophelia? Like fancy the pants off her?" George nodded firmly. "Then who bloody fucking cares! As long as she's not hurting you or feeding you a love potion Georgie, anyone who loves and supports you will support your relationship with her."

"Really?"

"One hundred percent Georgie."

* * *

**October 18, 1993**

If the Weasley boys went to Lucy for advice on girls then Lucy went to Dora with her boy problems. The two cousins sat at the less savory one of the two Hogesmead taverns. Hogs Head, unlike the Three Broomstick, was not as brightly lit or crowded, there was no music that played on repeat or pretty bartender to smile at. There was Aberforth Dumbledore, the cobwebs in the rafters that he didn't bother to clean out, and the shady patrons who sat in the dark corners to conduct their business away from the colorful Auror and nosy bartender.

Lucy swished her firewhiskey in her glass. "Dora I don't know what to do, I mean he's my college, he hated me for the first few weeks he knew me." He knew Sirius.

"Do you fancy him?" Dora asked earnestly. Lucy thought for a moment; the last time she had liked anyone romantically it had been in her fifth year, she had fancied the pants off of Dora's prefect Jane, who after graduation was sent to six months in Azkaban thus ending future relationship they may of had. Lucy compared how her heart sped up with Jane kissed her in the alcove on the sixth floor to how her heart speed up when Remus was around.

She thought of as of late how she and Remus were constantly touching, how across the room their eyes would meet and they would have their own private conversations. She thought of how the night before she had a rather issue dream of the Defense Professor going down on her.

"Yeah," Lucy nodded, "I do."

"Is he cute?" Dora wondered. Lucy thought of Remus's mustache and the smile he wore every time he genuinely laughed and his kind eyes. She also thought of his crooked nose and his scars.

"No," Lucy shook her head, calling Remus cute would be like calling a quinnipeg harmless, "He's handsome, not cute."

"First thing that pops into your mind when you think of him?"

"His laugh. No, his smile, no—his face when he's happy."

"Well then the answers simple, snog him." Lucy reeled back at her cousin.

"I just said he was my colleague!" Lucy hissed.

"Then what do you want me to say?" Dora threw her hands up. Aberforth eyed them from his place down the bar.

"I don't know, not that!" Lucy lied. She knew what she wanted her cousin to say. You can't fancy him. You shouldn't fancy him. You'll do nothing but drag him down if you ever get together so be a decent person for once and do the man a favor by not fancying him.

"Lucy look I'm going to channel my inner Bill okay—" Dora changed her face so she looked just like William Weasley. "—Stop being a twit, you deserve to be happy so march up to that castle, kick down his door and blow him so well he forgets his own name." Lucy turned a vibrant shade of Gryffindor red.

"How do you go from snogging to oral?" Dora changed back, a smirk stretched across her face.

"Magic." Lucy rolled her eyes at her cousin before tossing her drink back. Lucy had been drinking since she was fifteen and yet her throat still burned as the firewhiskey went down.

"Come on Luce I'm serious, you always talk yourself out of being happy. You almost did it with the Tornadoes—"

"And look how well that ended Dora," Lucy snapped. She winced apologetically. "I'm sorry, but have you thought that maybe I do that because I know I don't deserve it. I mean, Remus was friends with him Dora. He was weary to accept my friendship, why would he fancy me back?"

"Probably because you're a rich, talented, kind and loyal woman who anyone would be happy to be with."

"You think?"

"I know so. Honestly you should of heard Barnby talk about you fifth year."

"Barnaby fancied me?" Tonks hair turned a bright purple.

"Do not tell him I told you."

"Will do. But—" Dora groaned, "Let say he does fancy me, which I do highly doubt, why should I be with him? All I'll do is drag him down."

"You're a rich talented Quidditch player." Dora wagged a finger in Lucy's face.

"I'm a Black."

"So? What you're telling me this bloke has no baggage? None whatsoever? No ex wife or secret child?" He's a werewolf.

"He does, have baggage I mean. No child or anything but he has a demiguise on his back" Lucy said.

"See! Then there's no reason you being a Black should be the reason you hold yourself back from love."

"No one said anything about love Dora," Lucy told her cousin.

Dora snorted in a very unladylike like manner that would have Andromeda's head reeling. "You say that now but honestly Lucy you should have seen your face when you were talking about him being happy."

Lucy shifted in her seat embarrassed. "You should have heard George Weasley talk about Ophelia." Lucy said to change the subject.

"Oh!"

"Yeah apparently out darling cousin kissed him," Lucy gossiped.

"No!" Dora leaned forward, "I knew she fancied someone! I heard her talking to dad about it before she left for school! And George, as in Weasley?"

Lucy nodded, "He ran off afterwards."

"Did you hit him?" Dora asked, her roots changing from bright purple to dark red.

"I pelted him with crumpled up hate mail, and I talked to him."

"And?"

"I haven't seen either of them the past two days but from what Georgie said I do think they'll be Hogwarts latest it couple."

"Until that bloke of yours is caught doing the walk of shame from your office." Dora cackled. Lucy didn't feel sorry when she pushed the metamorphmagus off her stool and onto the wood flooring.

* * *

**October 19, 1993**

Lucy couldn't look Remus in the eyes as they performed their near weekly patrols. Not only was she painfully aware of the dream she'd had involving him only two nights prior but she could still practically hear Dora's voice encouraging her to snog him every time her eyes met his. Every time he smiled at her she could hear her conscience chant X-rated thoughts.

"I saw Gryffindors practice last night," Lucy said as Remus finished telling her not only about the Cornish pixie hive he had found outside his classroom window but how Hagrid had been the one to deliver them into the forest after nearly several hours of stunning each and every last one of them.

"And how are they looking?" Remus asked.

"Good. Thought let me tell you Potter has real talent."

"He does?" Remus asked, thought it wasn't so much as he needed Lucy to reaffirm it as it was a proud, almost fatherly He does don't he? From what Meiri and Ron had told her, Lucy doubted the mythic boy savor knew just how much Remus cared for him. She doubted he knew Remus cared at all and it pained Lucy because before he was the wizarding world's savior he was a thirteen year old child who should be constantly reassured that people loved him until he was sick of hearing it.

"He does. Honestly if he decides the Tornadoes are where he wants to play come a few years time I'll probably be out of a job."

"James almost got drafted," Remus told her, "To the Arrowheads, he was a bit upset it wasn't the Magpies but they'd just signed on a Hufflepuff from the year before us."

"You said almost, what happened?" Lucy asked.

"The war, James didn't think it was right for him to sit back and play Quidditch when people were out there dying just because he could afford to. He became an Auror instead." Like Sirius had.

"Did you?" Lucy wondered. He had mentioned his time at Muggle University and his short times as a muggle banker and his few years in France as a Ward Smith but perhaps he had just left out his time as an Auror out; many from the war had quite when it was over and didn't like to speak about it in order to put their ghosts to rest.

"Did I what?"

"Become an Auror?"

"No," Remus shook his head, "I applied but they won't hire my kind."

"They said that?" Lucy asked disgusted.

"Not in so many words. The lady who wrote back to turn me down, she was kinder than most," Remus explained.

"Then most, you get turned down a lot?" Lucy asked. Remus nodded.

"Most witches and wizards find it distasteful to be the presence of a monster," Remus told her blandly. Lucy glared at the floor angrily. Remus is a brilliant and kind man, Lucy thought, Anyone would be lucky to have them working for them.

"Most witches and wizards are idiots," Lucy growled. "You," she scoffed, "You aren't a monster." Remus breathed.

"I'm—"

"I know what you are Remus, you're not a monster," Lucy told him.

"That's nice of you too say but—"

"Shut up," Lucy ordered him as they rounded a corner. His jaw snapped shut. "I know real monsters. I've eaten dinner with people who have murdered countless others for the hell of it, I grew up with and was the bloody flower girl for the people who tortured a couple to insanity. Those people are monsters, you, you wouldn't even make the top thirty list."

"You mean that?"

"My family is here Remus, if I thought you were a danger to a single one of them you would have never woken up for the first day of classes." And then, leaving a frozen Remus who gawked at her back in awe, fear, amazement and something she couldn't pinpoint, Lucy continued on their patrol route.

* * *

**October 30, 1993**

Twas the night before the full moon, Lucy and Remus sat in his office, he was in his his red and black checkered pajama bottoms and black sweater and Lucy, with her hair pulled up on top of her head in a bun held together with her wand, was in an old white and green Weasley sweater Mrs. Weasley had knitted for her two previous Christmas' ago of and bright lime green leggings Andre threatened to burn every time he saw them.

The pair of them sat at Remus' desk their plates that had been piled high with food Lucy had brought in a picnic basket were mostly cleared and pushed to the side in lue of focusing on their fourth game of Go Fish.

"You're cheating you have to be!" Remus accused as Lucy declared she had no Igor the Terribles.

"Oh so if I'm better than you I have to be cheating?" Lucy taunted.

"No! I mean yes, I mean you're not better then me if your cheating!"

"You can't prove I'm cheating!"

"So you are cheating!"

"I never said that!" The door, without warning opened to reveal Severus Snape. Snape, holding a smoking cauldron walked into the room and made the same kind of face he might if he were to smell dung.

"Lupin I've brought you your potion." Snape ignored Lucy as he dropped the cauldron onto the pairs of cards.

"Thank you Severus," Remus said, standing, Lucy kept seated. Remus came around from his side of the desk to shake Severus' hand, something the Potion Master ignored.

Snape turned and sneered at Lucy as Remus poured the potion into his goblet, "What are you doing here Black?"

"Keeping a friend company, thought I doubt you would know what that's like."

"I'm sure that's all it is," Snape sniped.

"Severus," Remus growled warningly. Lucy snorted and stood, her arms were crossed over her chest and her hip popped out as her eyes gleamed almost dangerously.

"Obviously because no one has ever touched you without a ten foot pole you wouldn't know but if I planned to blow this delicious piece of man meat over here tonight," Lucy said sarcastically as she pointed at a beat red Remus, who choked on his potion. Snape looked like he wasn't sure if he wanted to curse Lucy to vomit on her, "You wouldn't have walked on on me kicking his ass at cards, you would have seen something much less child friendly."

Snape bared his teeth, seeming to look for any words to say before deciding his best course of action was to wordlessly storm out of the room, slamming the door loudly behind him.

"So I'm a delicious piece of man meat?" Lupin joked as he set his goblet down. His hip rested against the edge of his desk.

"Oh baby," Lucy egged on smiling, "You're prime rib."

"I'd say the same to you but my mother taught me not to lie," Remus grinned. Lucy rolled her eyes and pointed to herself.

"Please we both know looks wise I'm a ten."

"If you're a ten then what am I?" Lucy took the chance to trail her eyes long the expanded of his body only for her eyes to get caught on his lips. She opened her mouth but nothing came out.

Snog him! Lucy felt her body turn hot under Remus's gaze, as the seconds ticked by the males look had grown less playful and much more intense. Lucy's hand inched forward along the edge of the table, Remus' fingers twittled forward until the tips of their hands were barely even touching.

"A nine," she said quietly, "Nine point five."

"And how would I get to be a ten?" Remus asked, his voice husky.

Snog him! Grab him and snog him! Sno—

"Like this." Lucy leaned up and pressed her lips against his timidly.

Remus' lips were sifted and tasted like honeysuckle; she could feel his mustache tickle her upper lip. He pressed his lips against Lucy's with far more confidence then she had against his, the hand on the table covered hers while his other pressed itself firmly against Lucy's waist. Lucy circled her arms around Remus's neck. Her nails raked across the back of his and neck.

She could feel his heart beat in his chest as he pressed himself closer to her. Remus maneuvered Lucy against his desk, she seated herself on the edge and used her heels to pull Remus' calf's closer.

Lucy felt the pads as Remus' hands snake under the hem of Lucy's sweater, along the top of her leggings when he pulled away panting. Lucy opened her eyes and stared up at him; the gold specks in his eyes almost seemed to glow in the fire light. Remus stumbled back urgently, Lucy flew off the desk to grab the Defense Professor to steady him only for him to hold an arm out to her, warding her away.

"You—I'm sorry, you should go," Remus gasped, his eyes squeezed tightly. Lucy felt her heart plummet to her stomach. And as much as she wanted to protest she didn't.

Who was she to argue with someone who didn't want her. Silently Lucy left, she shut the door behind her quietly, and as she walked back to her room she willed herself not to cry.

Dora was wrong. Who would want a Black?

* * *

**October 31, 1993**

With a false smile on her face Lucy and Professor Sprout, after the Halloween feast, sat in the older woman's room. Madam Pomfrey's medical textbooks were stacked on the coffee table and plants hung from the ceiling and pictures of the middle aged pair littered the walls.

"So what was it like when you were a student Professor?" Lucy wondered. Sprout giggled.

"You say it as if they hadn't invented the wheel yet."

"They had?" Lucy asked sarcastically. Sprout swatted at Lucy when the door burst open, Headmaster Dumbledore and Professors McGonagall and Snape all stood in the doorway with the wands drawn.

Sprout and Lucy jumped to their feet, Sprout clutched her chest, "Morgana's tit!" The Herbologist swore.

Snape charged at Lucy, backing her up into the wall, his wand firmly under her chin. Lucy's wand was planted south of his belt.

"I'll give you one chance Snape, get your wand out of my face."

"Severus! Stop it!" Sprout shouted, drawing her own wand in Lucy's defence.

"Not now Pomona!" McGonagall hushed. Sprout shouted something back, whatever it was Lucy couldn't tell, only that McGonagall stiffened.

"Where is he?" Snape hissed.

"Where's who?"

"YOUR BROTHER BLACK!" Snape roared.

"I don't know!" Lucy shouted, "Why would I know!"

"Your brother Ms. Black," Dumbledore said, "Broke into the castle and attacked the Fat Lady."

"What?" Lucy felt weightless, like she was free falling, "No you're wrong, that's impossible." Lucy's thoughts raced a mile a minute. The Fat Lady guarded the Gryffindor common room. Ron and Ginny and the twins and Percy—they could have been hurt! But how had he entered the castle? Hogwarts was supposed to be impenetrable. Azkaban was supposed to inescapable but we see how well that turned out.

"I'm afraid not, Ms. Black, I'll need you to come to me.," the Headmaster told her gravely.

Four times. Lucy marked, four times Sirius Black had thrown Lucy's life into disarray four times. He should hope he didn't come across her, for if she did, Lucy was adamant, she'd kill him.

* * *

**A/N: And things get intresting... Happy 59th birthday Remus Lupun! Also, P****LEASE ! LEAVE ! COMMENTS!**


	5. November 1993 - chapter five

**November 1, 1993**

There's a muggle saying, History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Lucy couldn't help but think the saying rung as true as a church bell because as she left the Headmasters office, exhausted after a night of rapid fired questions from Aurors Dawlish and Shacklebolt— instead of Alastor Moody and Scrimgeour like years before—and the students emerging from the Great Hall gawked at her, whispering loudly and pointing at her. Lucy, as she passed by couldn't help but think she'd been here before.

Only unlike the last time there was no Bill Weasley to wrap her in a tight hug and promise her a life of companionship, there was just a pale and sickly looking Remus Lupin pacing in front of her office door, fuming.

"You!" He pointed his finger, his lips— the ones she had kissed only two nights prior —curled into a snarl. Lucy took a step back, she could already feel her heart preparing to break. History rhymed, it did not repeat. Where Bill had taken her into his arms and help mend her shattered heart Remus would surly rip hers out just to see if it was as black as her name.

"Remus, it's good to see you on your feet, I'm glad you're feeling well." Maybe Lucy could talk to him, could make him open his eyes and realize. She had been put in Slytherin for a reason.

A small part of her whispered_, You shouldn't have too, he should know you wouldn't have done this_.

"Feeling well?" He sneered. "How can I possibly feel well? Snape all but kicked down my door to gloat that once again I've been fooled by a Black! All I feel like is shit."

"I never fooled you Remus! I didn't help him get into the castle, Snape, he's an idiot—"

"I'm the idiot! Thinking you weren't just like your brothers, your mother!" Lucy flinched as Remus stepped closer, his voice raising with every step until he, red faced and neck strained, was glaring down his nose at her, practically screaming at the top of his lungs while Lucy's shoulders were hunched forward and her back was pressed flat against the cool stone wall of the corridor. It looked like she was trying to fold herself in half in order to hide away from him. "You kiss me just so you could sneak your brother into the castle—"

"I kissed you because I like you Remus!" Lucy protested, her voice weak. Her grey eyes filled with tears. How could he think she'd kiss him to sneak a murderer into the castle? To kill the boy Ron and Meiri thought of as another brother? How could he think so lowly of her?

"Like me?" He scoffed, "You Blacks don't have the hearts to like someone," he said scathingly. "You're all just vile, manipulative—"

"Professor Lupin!" A young man's sharp voice spoke over the screaming Professor. At the opening of the corridor both Remus and Lucy caught sight of a glaring Percy Weasley. Percy, with his chin tilted high and his glasses perched on the edge of his nose puffed out his chest and glared at his Defense Professor. "If you don't mind I need to speak to Lucy."

Lucy had never once, in all her years of living with the Weasleys, heard Percy Weasley sound so cold and detached. Not when the twins made him bald or when they died his skin green. Not when Ron had accidentally ruined his favorite book— the one he had dutifully saved up for. And not when Ginny in a fit of anger pointed out everything the then fourteen year old boy was insecure about.

Remus turned and snarled at Lucy. "We were done talking anyway," Remus spat before furiously limping away. Lucy didn't watch him turn the corner and instead opted to slide down the wall her back was pressed against, she pressed the balls of her hands against her eyes. Percy did watch the Professor leave however, glaring at every step he took until he was no longer in the seventeen year old sight.

When Remus was no longer around Percy made his way over to Lucy. He did not pull her up, instead the seventeen year old wizard slid down the wall next to her. Lucy pulled her hands away, her eyes were red and glossy.

"I didn't let him in Perce, you gotta believe me," Lucy begged. Percy Weasley smiled weakly and took the girl he thought of as as sister into his arms. He rubbed her arm soothingly, just as Molly did whenever she'd snatch up one of the crying children in her house.

"Of course I do Lucy. So do my siblings, and I know Bill and Charlie and Mia, when they hear how Professor Lupin screamed at you will be racing each other to the castle."

Lies, her mind hissed, _They all hate you. Remus was right Blacks don't have hearts. They don't know what love is. No one will ever love you, not Bill or Charlie or Mia—they'll all be happier when you're out of their life._

"Then, if they don't think I'm evil, where are they?" Lucy whimpered.

"We all saw you pass the Great Hall, I told them to talk to you later, not to overwhelm you." Lucy tried to smile at his thoughtfulness.

"You're a great brother Percy."

"I am?" He asked doubtfully.

"How could you possibly think otherwise?" Lucy wondered softly.

"I didn't protect Ginny last year, Ronald and the twins they think I'm a right bore, and you, you're still crying. If I were Bill I could have had you feeling better by now." Lucy wiped her eyes and sat up straighter, Percy kept his arm around her shoulder.

"Perceval Ignations," she scolded lighted looking at the young man, "I would give up all the gold in my vault if it meant being able to able to call you my real brother, okay?"

"You mean it?"

"From the bottom of my heart."

"Hey Lucy?" Percy wondered.

"Yeah Percy?"

"You don't think I'll lose my badge for hexing Warrington right?" Percy asked Lucy reeled back.

"You hexed someone?" Lucy gasped. "Why?"

"Warring was saying stuff about you—'sides hexing him is nicer then what either of the twins would have done." Lucy smiled and laid her head against the boy's honey shoulder.

"You really are a good brother Perce."

"You, Bill And Charlie taught me a lot."

…

Lucy stood in front of her group of twenty Gryffindor and Hufflepuff first years, each of them stood next to a Cleansweep that laid flat on the pitch green. Sunshine Ginsberg, a tiny still ten year old girl in her large magically charmed wheelchair stood next to her; Sunshine fingered the whistle Lucy had given her on their first day of lessons.

None of her students would look her in the eyes when just the day before they practically hung off her arms, begging them for lessons of tricks. None of them spoke either, while the lot of the whispered outside the pitch doors they had all simultaneously clammed up once walking onto the green.

The crowd in the stands was smaller than usual; for the first time since the start of the semester sat Percy Weasley, who on the top bleacher had been reading. Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint spoke animatedly two rows below them. A few feet away from them sat Cho Chang and her friends Cedric Diggory and Marietta Edgecombe.

"Now class I want you to put your hand over the broom," Every child did as told. "And then I want you to command it to your hands."

"How?" Ruthie Flowers asked loudly. She didn't look at Lucy but she had spoken,

"Can anyone answer Miss. Flowers' question?" No one raised their hand to answer. Lucy looked down,

"Miss. Ginsberg, have you don't the reading? Do you know?" Sunshine shrugged. Lucy sighed before looking at Ruthie Flowers.

"You say up Miss. Flowers. Now all of you, hand over your broom—up!"

Each of the first years followed her orders. Maliki Devon, Ruthie along with five other students brooms flew into the palm of their hands. Two Hufflepuff brooms rolled over and a Gryffindor boy's broom shot us and into his nose.

Lucy lurched forward, rushing to the boy who with watery eyes cupped his nose. She kneeled in front of the boy and pulled at his wrists. "Oh, let me see," Lucy clicked.

The boy let her move his hands away to see his bloody, bent nose.

"That's broken," Lucy sighed, the Gryffindor boy made a whimpering sound in the back of his throat. Lucy waved him off, "Don't worry about it I'll have you all fixed—" Lucy's words died in her throat when the boy stumbled back as she took out her wand.

"I'b bine," The boy said through his blood.

"Come on now Mr. Kaleton be smart your nose is broken, let me fix it," Lucy coaxed gently. She couldn't hide the look of hurt on her face.

"I'b bine," He said again. Lucy blinked and stood up.

"You're hurt Mr. Kaleton;" Lucy stated, "You need medical attention. If I make you uncomfortable then perhaps you would like to see Madam Pomfrey?" The boy nodded meekly. Lucy turned to the class.

"Who would like to take Mr. Kaleton to the Hospital Wing?" Nearly every hand shot up. Ruthie Flowers was not like every other child in her class, her hand did not shoot up, it curled into her chest as she stared at the grass conflicted. Which was why Lucy chose her.

"Miss. Flowers would you like to escort Mr. Kaleton to the Hospital Wing?" Lucy wondered. Ruthie looked up unsurely.

"Me?" The young girl asked. Lucy shrugged,

"If you would like to, if not I'll ask someone else."

"Someone else!" A child near Ruthie hissed. Ruthie glared at girl before turning back to Lucy,

"I'd like to take him ma'am." Lucy nodded and took out a hall pass from her robes and a glittery green gel pen; her pink one having ran out only three weeks into the term. As Ruthie walked up to Lucy to retrieve the hall pass the bloody Gryffindor boy was already halfway across the field.

"Hey Professor," Ruthie said looking Lucy in the eyes.

"Yes Miss. Flowers?"

"I don't think you let Sirius Black into the castle. You're too nice," and then without anything else Ruthie walked away towards the Gryffindor whos elbow she snatched roughly in order to drag him behind her, muttering how he was_ An idiot, that's what you are Kaleton, I mean just because you're stupid enough to believe rumors we're missing out on flying you idiot._

Lucy smiled down at the grass, "Fifteen points to Hufflepuff."

…

Lucy didn't go to dinner that night, instead opting to have the house elves it brought to her. Not that she touched it, no, as Lucy sat in her large office chair, looking blankly at Regulus' old broom while her bun cha and fried goi cuon sat on the side of her desk getting cold.

After Percy each of the Weasley-Prewett children had visited her, telling her how their peers are Gits, Lucy, I mean how can they believe you'd let a crazed mass murderer into the castle when you still won't let scabbers in your flat? Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, had visited as well, Harry, very awkwardly claimed he didn't believe the castle buzz either because Ron and Meiri were sure she was innocent and they were good judges of character. The twins friends Lee Jordan, still with stars in his eyes, rallied his support, and an angry Marcus Flint who ranted about people assuming she was like all the other Pure-blood adults, evil and maniacal, had stopped by during lunch.

And yet she didn't feel any better. She still wanted to quite, to pack up her things and hide in a hole until the whole ordeal had blown over and Sirius had been thrown back in Azkaban after a through one way snog with a Dementor.

A soft knock emulated from Lucy's door and then a red head popped his head in.

"Mr. Weasley?" Lucy asked, standing. "What are you doing here?"

"Professor Sprout and the kids wrote. Molly and I heard what happened."

"Is Mrs. Weasley here too?" Lucy asked wondering why the older woman was standing in the dark corridor.

"No, no, I thought I should visit alone." Lucy felt icy dread seep into through her veins. _He's going to tell you not to come around anymore, going to ward you off like the monster he knows you are._

"W-Why? Not that I'm not happy you're here it's just—"

"I know what you mean," Mr. Weasley waved off, closing the door and taking a seat on the stool across from Lucy. Lucy hesitantly lowered herself into her own.

She was sure— she was one hundred percent, from the bottom of her her heart, the sky is blue and the grass is green kind of sure — that if Mr. Weasley walked away having asked for her resignation and forbidding her from ever coming around to the burrow again because of him she would take a swan dive off the astronomy tower. She was sure of it.

"Do, would you like some fried goi cuon?" Lucy asked shakily, putting forth the half cold rolls.

"No, Molly and I were eating when the owls came; I came to make sure you were okay." Lucy's heart stopped. Why wasn't here warning her away?

"What?"

"Percy told us about the Defense Professor, Sprout told us about Sirius, Lucy, Molly and I—do you remember the first time to came to Burrow?"

"Yeah of course," Lucy said, confused on why he'd bring up that memory. It was one of her happiest memories but still, Lucy wasn't sure why he was bringing it up.

"I do too. I remember you woke up screaming your first night. Woke the whole house up, scared half us to death." Lucy's cheeks pinkined in embarrassment. She recalled what Mr. Weasley was talking about, the nightmare about her mother finding where she was and hurting Bill and the others.

"And?"

"Molly was dead on her feet and I'd only just arrived so I told her I'd calm you down and stay up with you," Arthur retold fondly. Lucy remembered the cup of hot chocolate he had made for her and the warm wool blanket he wrapped around her shoulders and the fact that until she had stopped crying he kept her tucked under his arm in a fatherly way that she had never experienced before. "Do you remember what you said when I promised you I wouldn't let your mother hurt you or Bill?"

Lucy shook her head. Mr. Weasley frowned sadly, as if remembering a fond family pet who had passed away.

"You told me you didn't deserve such kindness. That if your mother did come Molly and I should let her take you—you didn't think we should get hurt to protect you."

"I still don't." No one deserved to be hurt at her expense, especially not the Weasleys.

"Which is why Professor Sprout is concerned about you resigning," Mr. Weasley said. He leaned his elbows against his knees.

"I should—"

"Stay, here at Hogwarts."

"Why? The children, they can't look me in my eyes. The Professors," Lucy flinched at the memory of Lupin, whether it was because of what he had said or how he had said it.

"For Molly and I. We asked you to keep Bill safe when he wouldn't listen to us about staying away from those Vaults," Mr. Weasley said, Lucy remembered.

_It had been the summer between their fifth and sixth years and once again Lucy was at the Burrow. The sun had set and as the large household dressed themselves in their pajamas and Lucy helped four and five year olds Meiri and Ginny into theirs Mr and Mrs. Weasley entered the room._

_"Lucy dear," Mrs. Weasley asked, "Can we speak to you in the hallway." Lucy panicked at what she could of done nodded. She hadn't don't anything for the Weasley to get mad at her about, had she?_

_In the hallway Mr. Weasley wrapped an arm around his wife._

_"We keep trying to speak to Bill about the Vaults," Mr. Weasley said, "They're dangerous. A boy's gone missing over them, you get that correct?" Lucy nodded._

_"No matter what Arthur and I tell him Bill says he won't stop helping that girl for them!" Molly worried._

_"He a good friend Mrs. Weasley," Lucy said. She needed to defend Bill in some sort of way._

_"He is it's just—you are too dear," Molly told her._

_"Thank you?"_

_"Lucy Molly and I know you went with them as well and well, we know we have no right to ask this of you—" Lucy expected the man to ask Lucy to say away from Bill come the following year, "—But we want to to look out for Bill. Please."_

_Lucy blinked at the parents slowly._

_"Why me?" Lucy asked._

_"You're a smart and talented girl Lucy. And you love Bill to bits which is why we're asking this of you."_

_"You didn't have to," Lucy said to them, "I was going to have Bills back regardless. He—you guys are my family. I'd protect any of you with my life." Molly choked back a sob as she scooped Lucy up in a thankful bone crushing hug._

"I remember."

"You still mean that don't you, you'd protect any of us?" Lucy leaned forward in her seat.

"Yes of course," Lucy said automatically, there was a fierce look in her eyes that caused Mr. Weasley to take in a deep breath of air. Lucy would kill, die or bribe for the Weasley family; there was nothing she wouldn't do for them, whether it meant a lifetime in Azkaban or an eternity in the Black family cemetery.

"Then Molly I need are asking you to stay here, to protect the kids. If Sirius Black can get into the castle we need to know the children are protected. We need you here," Mr. Weasley pleaded. Lucy could see it in his face, the fear of losing one of the kids, of waking up to another _There's been an incident letter._

He was terrified and it hurt Lucy because he was, though not in blood but still in all sense of the word her father.

"Then you have me here Mr. Weasley." She wouldn't let anything happen to those kids.

* * *

**November 3, 1993**

Barnaby Lee was a sweet young man. He wasn't the smartest by far but he had a kind heart in spite of his upbringing—an upbringing similar to that of Lucy's. Which was why, perhaps, despite the two year age difference and the lack of common interests, the suspended Seeker and the Magizoologist intern were so close; they both understood the others insecurities. They both knew what kind of thoughts came with being friends with such bright and good people when every other piece of fruit on their family tree was rotten.

They both knew what it was like to be in a room of people who loved them and yet feel utterly alone because the voice in the back of their head— Lucy's mother and Barnaby grandmother —constantly told them no one in that room actually loved them.

The pair sat in a Hogshead booth, two large pints of Dragon Barrels Brandy sat untouched in front of them. In Lucy's hand was an old necklace she'd fished out from an old tin under her mattress. The necklace was nothing special at first glance, just old leather and wire wound tightly around a dragon's tooth. At nine Charlie Weasley identified it from his books as the tooth of a Chinese Fireball.

"I heard he broke into the castle," Barnaby murmured concerned as Lucy stared at the necklace in her hand. It had been his and yet no matter what he did Lucy couldn't bring herself to toss into the Black lake or trash bin. How could she do that when it reminded her of a time when everything was alright. Her mother was still a tyrannical bitch and her father was dying but he was still living at home telling her bedtime stories and Reggie was still alive using her five year old cuteness whenever Claudia got mad at him.

"He did. He attacked the Fat Lady." Barnaby shtick brows rose.

"Is she okay?" Lucy shrugged, almost none of the castles portraits spoke to anymore in solidarity. The only one who did was her Great uncle Phineas, an old school Headmaster no one had liked.

"I guess, she told Dumbledore she wouldn't guard the portrait hole anymore so they got that knight, Sir Cadogan to do it."

"Which one was he?"

"Remember the portrait that had a hard one on for Mia? The one that constantly kept challenging Charlie to a duel?" Barnaby nodded his head now having remembered. He snorted loudly.

"Merlin he was a pain in the arse, Charlie used to ask Andre for advice cause yours and Bills sucked—"

"Hey," Lucy wined offended, she thought she gave great advice to a sixteen year old Charlie.

"—You told Charlie to curse Talbot bald when he thought Mia was into him," Barnaby pointed out.

"No one likes bald guys, especially bald guys who already looked weird with hair," Lucy defended. Even if she realized that cursing a boy bald to get the attention of another person was a bad idea she wasn't go to leave sixteen year old Lucy out to dry.

"If only Charlie found out Talbot fancied Andre before he hexed him," Barnaby said dreamily as he recalled the verbal thrashing Mia had given Charlie. Lucy smirked guiltily.

"Not my fault I didn't know the kid. I mean not only was he two years younger but he was in a completely different house!"

"Excuses!" Lucy let out a deep laugh as Barnaby slapped his hand against the table grinning widely, the thick glass mugs of bourbon sloshed dangerously close to the rim of the cup due to neither the witch or wizard drinking very much of either contents.

As their laughter died down the weight she constantly lugged around settled back on her shoulder.

"I'm scared Barnaby," Lucy told him, "Azkaban is supposed to be inescapable, Hogwarts impenetrable. But he's got in once already."

"Are you scared what he's going to do to you?" Barnaby wondered. Lucy shook her head.

"Everytime the past two years, whenever there's a threat at that school Harry Potter has run off to save the day. What if Ron and Meiri are there with him when he faces him? What is they get hurt?" What if they die?

"Why would Harry Potter come face to face with him?" Barnaby asked. Lucy, knowing she couldn't tell anyone outside the school— Dumbledore had given her a talking too when he found out she had spoken with the Weasley about warning Harry —shrugged.

"The boy's a hero Barnaby, he'll probably be trying to save the day or something," Lucy said fondly.

"Well," Barnaby said slowly, trying to think of what to say, "Then everything will work out okay."

"How do you come to that conclusion?" Lucy wondered. She would love to be able to think positively once every so often.

"Well he's thirteen and saved the school twice meaning if he saves it again he'll probably be okay, meaning Ron and Meiri will be okay."

"That's hope Barnaby, not a guarantee," Lucy said lowly. The young man shrugged.

"It's better then nothing." He had a point.

* * *

**November 6, 1993**

Lucy had been wandering the halls trying to ignore the pointed looks the magical portraits shot her way and evasive looks the students wore whenever she passed them by when she saw Neville Longbottom leaning up against the wall next to the Defense room pale and on the verge of a panic attack.

Lucy could recall the first and only time she had run into the boy's grandmother Lady Augusta Longbottom.

_Lucy had been twelve and shopping for school supplies with Bill and Mr. Weasley, the three of them had only just walked into the potion supply store when someone behind Lucy fell into her throwing the young girl forward and into an old woman. The woman carried a large red bag and wore an even larger feathery sun hat. She turned around ready to snap at whomever had bumped into her when she caught sight of Lucy, pulling herself up from the floor, brushing off her knees._

_"You!" The woman hissed, her bright red lips were pulled back into a snarl. Lucy, used to this kind of treatment grimaced._

_"Hello? Do I know you?"_

_"Do you know me? I am Augusta Longbottom!" The name rung a slight bell, Lucy could recall the Longbottoms being on the list if the Sacred Twenty-eight, but not if she had ever met the woman. The twelve year old girl shrugged._

_"Pleasure to meet you Madam Longbottom." The woman started to vibrate, as if she was an erupting volcano. People in the shop seemed to stop what they were doing and look upon the pair as if they were a theater act._

_"Nice to—how dare you!" The woman spluttered. An elderly man holding a round faced baby walked up behind Augusta Longbottom. His face paled concern as he looked at Lucy; he clutched the child tighter to his chest. "After all that wicked cousin of yours did to my Frank and his wife you say nice to meet you!" Lucy took a step back. The woman took one forward and Lucy took another back until her back had met Mr. Weasley's front. The redheaded father laid a hand on Lucy's shoulder. Bill stood in the corner clutching his bag of spider legs. Lucy looked up at Mr. Weasley frightened, she had been hexed the last time the Weasleys had taken her out with them and this woman looked angry enough to do far worse then hexing and not lose any sleep over it._

_Mr. Weasley smiled reassuringly down at Lucy. "Agusta, it's wonderful to see you again."_

_"Nice to see me," the older woman scoffed, "How can you say that to me when you're here with that Black child!"_

_"Because she's a child Agusta, my oldests best friend."_

_"She is Sirius Black's sister! Bellatrix Lestrange cousin! Come on now Arthur she looks just like that evil woman!"_

_"Maybe but Lucy is not Bellatrix, Agusta."_

_"Mark my words Arthur she'll end up just like that woman! Mark them!" Lucy did and that very same night, while she and Bill cut off all her hair in the bathroom while the rest of the house laid asleep Lucy, for the upteenth time, wished she weren't a Black._

"Mr. Longbottom?" Lucy asked the young boy, "Is anything wrong?" Neville looked up at Lucy and then at the door.

"P-P-Professor Snape is in there ma'am." Lucy had heard at the start of term that Neville's boggart had turned into the bully of a Potions Master. Potions Master being the key word; Remus was the Defense Professor no matter how much Snape wished it were him.

"Why is Professor Snape in there?" Lucy asked concerned. While Remus had torn her head off just a few days prior Lucy, against her better judgement and every fiber of her being, couldn't help but worry about the man. There was something about him that drew her in.

Neville hesitated to talk about the Defense Professor; it seemed as if Percy had told the twins what he had witnessed and the twins had told Ron who of course had told everyone.

"Go on Neville, I won't fly off the handle at the mention of Professor Lupin."

"He says Professor Lupin is sick." The last time Lucy had seen Remus was when he was screaming at her five days previously and even then he looked like shit; pale and sweating with bags under his eyes and a sickly pinkish hue to cheeks.

"That sucks," Lucy said, "But hey maybe Snape makes a better Defense Professor then he does Potions." Lucy didn't look like she believed what she said anymore then she had sounded it. "Sides how mean can he be when teaching about kelpies?"

"We're not learning about Kelpie." Lucy frowned. Remus had mentioned that the Kelpie was the last in their underwater created Defense chapter and as he had already gone over Redcaps, Merpeople, and Grindylows they had to be going over Kelpies.

"If you're not being taught about Kelpies then what are you being taught on?"

"Werewolves."

Lucy threw open the door, the metal handle hit the wall behind it making a loud banging sound. Everyone in the class turned around to look at Lucy who, she was sure in Neville's opinion, looked slightly crazed.

"Black, If you can't happen to see I am in the middle of a lesson," Snape grit out.

"The Headmaster needs you," Lucy lied, "Urgently." She added unblinking. Her face was cool, free of any tells.

"The Headmaster knows I'm in the middle of a class."

"And yet he sent me to retrieve you."

"I didn't know you were part owl Black."

Lucy shrugged and smiled sarcastically at her old Potions Professor. "It's my side job, I don't like to flaunt it but—" Lucy put her hands out in front of her in a what can you do sort of manor. The class giggled.

"Then I will see the Headmaster after class."

"He wanted you now. Like I said it, Dumbledore told me to tell you it is very urgent."

"And just what does the Headmaster suppose I do with these third years?" Snape asked through gritted teeth.

"Leave them with me of course. I am a Professor."

"A flying instructor," Snape correcte nastily.

"Still on the payroll Severus," Lucy sneered.

"Against my wishes." Lucy spotted the evil look Ron was sending at Snape.

"Yeah well it seems not even Dumbledore cares about those—" there was a sharp intake of breath across the room. Ron bit his knuckles not to laugh, Dean Thomas buried his face in Seamus Finnigan's shoulder and Harry Potter looked like he wanted to faint, "—So toodles Severus. I'll make sure to keep extra good care of Professor Lupin's third years," Lucy said passive aggressively. Snape flashed a deep red, a bright blue and then a dark purple before stalking out, making sure he knocked into Lucy's shoulder. Not that it did anything; after a life on a broom being hit by Bludgers Lucy managed to stand her ground, sending Snape a step back before having to walk around her.

Lucy leaned out of the classroom, "It's safe to come in Mr. Longbottom." Neville, in his usual meal way, entered the classroom and took his seat next to Mis.. Parvati.

Lucy pulled out her wand and waved it; the projector shut off and the curtains opened as Lucy strolled up to the front of the classroom. She needed these kids to forget just what they had learned and she had the prefect idea how to.

"Now I'm going to take a survey. Raise your hand if you'd like to learn about what you should have, Kelpies." Hermione, Draco and a handful of other students raised their hands. "Raise your hand if you want to play a trivia game on what you've learned this year so far, boys against girls." Everyone else's hands shot up. Perfect.

"Splendid, girls on the right boys on the left choose your team names and let me know when you've got them."

Remus may not have wanted anything else to do with Lucy but she was a Slytherin and Slytherins, they always take care of their own and despite everything he had said; she still liked him.

* * *

**November 7, 1993**

It was pouring kezeles and crups. The wind was so strong that as Lucy stood in the middle of the field waiting for the two teams, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff to approach she was nearly blown over. Lucy saw the sky light up like a Wizbang; if she didn't hear the thunder it was only because of the loudly cheering crowd.

Gryffindor in their bloody red and gold uniforms entered from one end of the pitch; Wood looked serious, as if he'd swallowed the snitch Lucy grasped tightly in her hands. The twins grinned, their hair sticking to their faces. And Harry, the smallest— in both height and weight —on the team, seemed to sway in the wind.

Hufflepuff entered the pitch from the opposite side wearing their canary yellow uniforms.

"Captains, shake," Wood gripped Diggory hand tightly only to ease up with Lucy shot him a tense look.

"I want a fair game okay? It's already pretty dangerous out here so don't try and pull any shit it's your arse that's suspended for a game, is that clear!" Lucy spoke loudly.

"Yes!" The teams yelled back.

"Good, now mount your brooms!" Lucy looked to see both teams mounted on their brooms. When each player was Lucy raised her whistle to her mouth, released the snitch, counted to five and then blew.

They were off! Lucy rose in the air with them and hovered over the Professors box waiting to see if either team tried something they shouldn't have whether it be blanching or stooging.

An hours and a half later the scores were low and closely tied at sixty Gryffindor- ten Hufflepuff. While as a Professional player Lucy could fault the Hufflepuff team for not being as prepared as the Gryffindors to play in conditions such as those, as a Professor she couldn't. She understood that these were children and that quaffle was wet and slippery causing both teams Chasers to lose it. Wood flew from his place in front of the Gryffindor goals and flew over to Lucy.

"I need to call a timeout!" He yelled over a roll of thunder. Lucy nodded and blew her whistle. "Thanks!" Oliver flew down to his team's side of the green where the twins were already standing.

The Hufflepuff team stood on their end huddled together shivering and talking strategy.

Five minutes later both teams were back in the air, and it was If they had given Harry a Pepper-up potion. The thirteen year old boy urged his broom through the turbulent air, staring in every direction for the Snitch, avoiding a Bludger and ducking beneath Diggory, who was streaking in the opposite direction.

There was another clap of thunder, followed immediately by forked lightning. Lucy swallowed as she looked out at the playing children, the conditions were worsening; she didn't want anyone getting struck by lighting. She looked at her watch.

She would give Harry and Diggory another twenty minutes barring any electrocutions before calling a draw and ordering a rescheduling.

Lucy saw, though the thick rain, Harry turning, intending to head back toward the middle of the field, but at that moment, another flash of lightning illuminated the stands, and the young boy froze. He slipped and his Nimbus dropped a few feet. Lucy lurched forward wand at the ready.

"Harry!" came Wood's anguished yell from the Gryffindor goal posts. "Harry, behind you!" Harry was stilling looking wildly around when Lucy saw it. A speck of gold somewhere past the middle of the field, near the Gryffindor goal post.

Harry steered his broom forward. But then something happened. And odd silence fell over the crowd and once more Lucy heard her mother's crowing voice as dread filled her very soul.

_No,_ the witch thought, looking around widely for the Dementors. Fred and George had halted where they were. Lucy moved further onto the field when she saw it. A large Dementor was upon Harry Potter.

It was if everything was happening in slow motion; Lucy urged her broom to go faster only for everything to stop as Harry slipped off his broom and fell towards Earth.

A gasp echoed through the crowd; children screamed. Dumbledore rose from his seat and pointed his wand at a plummeting Harry; "ARRESTO MOMENTUM!" Harry, though still falling, fell slower.

Lucy, like she had done at the Chuddley match and that day on the pitch, Lucy threw herself forward, practically falling herself. Only she wasn't after a snitch or the sweet release of death this time, she was after a boy who meant the world to the people she loved.

She grabbed the back of Harry's robes and heard a sickening popping come from her shoulder. She cried out in pain as she nearly fell off her own broom. Harry Potter was heavier then he looked, but after eleven years of Quidditch and twelve of rough housing the Weasley boys and three of fighting Ice Knights and the monsters found in the Forbidden Forest Lucy managed to hold onto the young boy until they were on the ground.

There she let him go, though she did not lay next to him out of breath and in pain like she wanted to. Instead, as the two teams landed around them and the other Professors and students rushed onto the field Lucy wasted no time to levitate Harry Potter and rush him off the field and to Madam Pomfrey.

…

That night, with her shoulder in a sling Lucy sat on her bed sipping a cup of Black tea a kind house elf had made for her. She read a copy of the Prophet that had been left on top of her covers by someone who had snuck into her room during the Quidditch game and her few hours spent in the Hospital Wing being patched up and talking to Harry Potter.

Lucy knew she shouldn't read it, that whatever they were saying would upset her but the self loathing part of her won out leading Lucy to gape at the front page:

**SIRIUS-LEE BLACK EVIL! :**

**LUCRETIA BLACK, SISTER TO THE INFAMOUS ESCAPED FELON MASS MURDERER AND BARNABY LEE, SON TO TWO NITROUS DEATH EATERS SERVING LIFE IN AZKABAN MEET IN HOGSMEADE ABOUT HER BROTHER**

**article by Reeta Skeeter**

Lucy screamed, loud enough to rattle the glass dragon figurine she kept on her bookshelf. Lucy had always thought of reasons she might be sentenced to a life in Azkaban and she usually came up with murder. Usually the people she thought of murdering were her eldest sibling or cousin-in-law or Severus Snape and others like them but as she read the article that painted both herself and Barnaby as two conspiring villains, smearing the younger man's name in the mud Lucy decided murdering Reeta Seeker would be a noble sentence. One she could hold her head high about.

One she truly thought of committing.

Lucy walked over to her countertop where a piece of spare parchment and the pack of glitter pens she'd been given sat. She picked the dark blue one.

**Rosier, I need to call in that favor you owe me.**

* * *

**November 8, 1993**

Lucy woke up to soft knocking, the paper that had been left on her bed the previous night was still tight clenched in her hand. She woke up glaring at it before slamming it down on the floor with a growl and, in a very over dramatic, Severus Snape sort of way, stalking over to the door, which she then dramatically followed to throw open leaving her face to face with Remus Lupin.

_Kill me now_, Lucy prayed silently. No godly force struck her down. She almost thought It's too early to be accused of crimes I haven't committed until she realized she had no idea what time it was.

If she had looked over her shoulder to the clock that hung above the fireplace she would have seen it was only half past eight.

"What are you doing here Professor Lupin?" Lucy, no longer wearing the sling that must have gotten lost in her sheets, crossed her arms, ignoring the twinge of pain.

"I came to see you, if I can?" He asked.

"Are you here to accuse me of seducing you in order to help my convicted murderer of a brother inside the castle so he can murder a thirteen year old boy?" She asked dryly. She may have defended him against Snape but after what he'd said to her she reserved the right to be a bitch to him.

"No," Lupin said, his face soft and apologetic.

"Are you here to compare me to the mother who used to beat me and tell me I'm a soulless wench of the night who doesn't know what love is?"

"I never called you a wench," Lupin muttered. Lucy, with a belligerent look in her eyes, moved to slam the door in his face when Lupin slapped his hand against the wood. Lucy could have easily overpowered him, he was thin and only now just on the mend after a weeks worth of injuries and illnesses. If they were children she could have stolen his lunch money with one hand behind her back.

But they weren't, and Lucy didn't slam the door in his face, instead she moved the door slightly more open.

"I want to apologize," Remus told her, "I was wrong. You aren't like your family Lucy. You're a good person."

"Are you just now realizing this?" Lucy asked and Remus shook his head.

"No, I knew what I was was wrong the moment I left the corridor. I just—I was just so angry at Sirius breaking in and overwhelmed from the full moon and Snape and our—" kiss, he had been about to say kiss before he'd cut himself off and turned red.

"If you knew that what you said was wrong the moment after you said them why didn't you apologize then Remus? It's not like I locked myself in my room and hid under my bed afterwards, I cried in the corridor with Percy for a bit and then changed for classes."

"I was ashamed," Remus said truthfully. Lucy didn't look like she believed it.

"Then why are you here now?"

"Professor Sprout came to me after yesterday's game, she told me you saved Harry, what you did for me Friday with Snape."

"So what?" Hair fell into Lucy's face, "You feel like you owe me or something?" Lupin let out a breathless laugh and with the tips of his fingers he brushed her hair behind her ear. Lucy's heart speed up; it was if it had grown a snitches wings.

"I'm here because even after what I said you still stuck up for me, making me feel like an even bigger piece of shite."

Lucy teetered forward, her eyes focused on her magically dangling unicorn socks before looking back up at Remus, "None of my friends, not when they were furious at me or putting me in my place, none of them have ever said stuff like that to me Remus, none of them. Ever, so why should I forgive you?"

"Because sixth year I almost killed Snape," Lucy blinked at the heavy confession, "He followed me under the Willow to the shack where I transform and if it weren't for James stopping him I would have killed him."

"What does that have to do with anything? That was what twenty years ago?"

"Seventeen. And I'm telling you this because that has been the only time other time in my life I have ever felt this bad." Lucy nodded.

"So here's almost murdering your fellow Professor as a teenager," Lucy held her hand up and then moved it ever so slightly below that, "And here's yelling at me?" They both knew it wasn't just yelling at her; it was yelling at her as if she were beneath him, as if she had personally murdered the Potters and Pettigrew, not Sirius.

"You're the first friend I've had in twelve years Lucy, I don't want to lose that."

Lucy was quite for a moment.

"Okay, fine, but you sir owe me one favor I can cash in at anytime for anything." Lucy wagged her finger at the tip of his nose. Remus reach up and took hold of her finger, bringing it to their sides but not letting go.

"Sound fair, now tell me all about what happened Friday, All Sprout said was you stopped Severus from teaching about werewolves." Lucy sidestepped the entrance, welcoming the werewolf in.

"Boy what I wouldn't give to hit Snape just once."

* * *

**November 9, 1993**

After classes Monday during her lunch hour Lucy was picking up the brooms her Gryffindor and Hufflepuff students had used to practice their flying and putting each one gently into the large barrel the school used to store them when Remus Lupin, holding the wicker picnic basket Lucy had used the night before Halloween, showed up on the pitch. His hair was neatly combed and the color in his face had fully returned making the werewolf seem as healthy as ever.

"Remus, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in the Great Hall eating?" Lucy wondered when the werewolf got closer. Lucy placed another broom into the barrel. The brooms handel met the bottom of the barrel with a soft clunk.

"You're not," Remus pointed out, "Burbage says you haven't you haven't been eating in the Hall." Lucy paused from picking up another broom, shifted from her left foot to her right and then back to her left.

"Some of the students aren't comfortable around me anymore so I've been having an elf deliver my meals to my office," Lucy murmured.

"Which is why I asked Button to pack the foods you likes."

"You're too kind, you didn't need to do that." Remus smiled sadly, his lips closed and turn downwards.

"Not kind enough," he told her guiltily.

"Remus—"

"No," Remus stepped forward, his eyes soft and his forehead crinkled, "I should of never spoken to you that way. Never said what I did." And that's when she saw it, a flash of bright purple where his pearly white teeth should be.

"What happened?" Lucy took two large steps closer. Remus puckered his lips,

"Nothin'," He said, barley moving his mouth.

"Bull," Lucy called, "Come on what happened to your teeth?" She put her palms flat against her hips; Remus chewed the inside of his cheek before slowly smiling, showing off each of his neon purple teeth.

Lucy made a choking gasp. She quickly covered her own mouth.

"W-What happened?" Lucy asked him giggling. Remus shot her a sarcastically look.

"Those twins of yours, Fred and George, the one of them came up to me at breakfast wondering about the homework and slipped this into my tea."

"Oh no," Lucy chuckled, "I'm—I am sorry Remus, I'll talk to them. I'm sure they didn't mean anything to harsh, they're just protective, Percy told them about—" Lucy cut herself off awkwardly.

"Me screaming at you?" Lucy nodded.

"Honestly Remus before that they all said you're the best Defense Professor they've ever had. I'm sure that's still true." Remus shook his head,

"It's fine Lucy, I understand. I deserve worse then colorful teeth for doing what I did. Which is why I spoke to McGonagall. She caught them and gave them detention." Lucy grimaced. Guilt tugged at her stomach. "They'll be doing non extra credited charm work with Flitwick."

Lucy felt somewhat better. "That's good, they love Charms."

"I heard," Remus said before holding up the momentarily forgotten picnic basket, "We should probably eat before any of this gets cold."

"Good idea, I just have to finish putting away the barrels and then we can eat up in the commentators box."

"Do you want any help?" Remus asked. Lucy looked at the three brooms she had left and then back at Remus.

"No, I'll be quick." And she was; ten minutes later Remus and Lucy sat in the commentators box with various Korean food dishes. Lucy didn't wait for Remus to get situated before picking at the samgyeopsal and the japchae.

It was only after she had downed her third slice of pork belly that she noticed Remus, with his tongue between his teeth, was stabbing fruitlessly at the meats, unable to use the chopsticks the house elves had packed.

Lucy snorted, reminded of the time before Charlie Weasley had learned to use properly use chopsticks. He used to hold one chopstick in each hand and pick up the food like a rotisserie.

"You don't know how to use chopsticks?" Remus looked up away from the food embarrassed.

"I haven't used them in years," he told her truthfully.

"And? It's like riding a broom."

"Says the professional Quidditch player," Remus resorted fondly. Lucy rolled her eyes good naterly and leaned over grabbing Remus' hand. She folded his pinkie and fourth finger and rested the first chopstick on them before squeezing the area between his thumb and index finger. Lucy then fixed the second between the thumb and index finger as well before resting that on his middle finger.

"And there we go," Lucy smiled dazzling, her face closer to Remus's then expected. The pair froze for a second, both their breathings hitched.

Do I go for it? Lucy wondered He was horrified the last time. I shouldn't. We're only just on the mend after what he said. I really shouldn't. But I really want to. The sparks Lucy had felt, the free falling feeling she had experienced the last time they had kissed were the reasons she moved forward.

It was why, when Roger Davies voice called out looking for her, causing both Remus and herself to fly away from each other she was slightly dishearten.

* * *

**November 16, 1993**

When it had come time for Lucy's first year Slytherin and Ravenclaw class to pick their team Captain it had been Ravenclaw who had chosen Tahani Al Jamil; the aristocratic muggle born girl, who that first day asked what was Quidditch. Slytherin had surprisingly chosen Astoria Greengrass. Lucy would have chosen Stebbins due to his stronger flying but it hadn't been her choice to make, it had been the seven first years who wanted to fly who had democratically elected Astoria to the title of Captain.

All in all it left three Slytherin and eight Ravenclaw students who couldn't, or wouldn't fly to be the stats keepers and spotters.

"Mrs?" One of the non flying students, Veronica Heathrow raised her hand after the voting "What does being a spotter mean exactly?"

"Well it means tossing your player a ball and seeing if they catch it if they're a Chaser or if they block it if they're a Keeper."

"If they don't?"

"You nicely—" Lucy looked at the three cut throat first year Slytherins, "Critique them."

"And if they're a Seeker Mrs?"

"Then you chuck these," Lucy held out tiny gold painted muggle golf balls Gadrel had suggest using, "As far as you can. The seeker will try to catch them, if they don't they need to find them on their broom and bring them back to you. And remember!" Lucy called out to all the spotters, "Keep track of the amount of times your player catches a ball in the note lags I've given you. The most improved player and their spotter at the end of the year wins a prize."

"What's the prize?"

"It's a surprize!" Lucy punned. None of the students laughed.

"Alright forget you," Lucy muttered, "Get to work!"

…

They were practically kissing, Wood and Flint that was. Lucy had been on her way to meet Professor Sprout and Remus when she came upon the two boys arguing, very loudly, and very closely. Their chest were nearly touching and Flint looked like he wasn't sure if he wanted to grab Wood to strangle him or kiss him.

"OKAY BOYS! Break it up," Lucy ordered.

"Madam Lucy please tell Flint there's no use in trying to book the pitch tonight because Gryffindor will wipe the floor with Slytherin anyway," Oliver said more to Flint then Lucy.

Flint glared at the boy, "Madam Lucy will you please tell Wood here to stop his dreams of grandeur already and move aside so we can book the pitch, Slytherin has won the cup the past two years and were going to win a third!"

"Only because our main Seeker has been out of commission every single time!"

"Not my problem!" Flint argued. Oliver Woods fists balled and Lucy watched the boy wearily, hoping that neither of the Captains tried to hit the other. She liked both boys and would hate to ban them from playing for their final year.

Both boys turned to Lucy, "Can I book the pitch!" They asked simultaneously. They turned to each other and glared.

"Why?" Lucy asked them dimly. It was Wednesday and Lucy knew both Botha and their teams had already been out on the pitch three times already.

"To practice?" Wood answered.

"I mean why do you two need practice you've both been out on the pitch every chance you get."

"To get better," Flint stressed. Lucy looked at both boys sympathetically. She remembered when she thought the same way they did.

"Practicing twenty four seven doesn't help you get better," Lucy said sagely.

"Of course it does it's practice," Wood rebuked, confused on why practice wouldn't make perfect.

"And if you work your players and yourself to hard you'll burn out. Someone will get injured and suddenly you're not working with someone you have been meaning you'll need to pull in an alternate meaning the rest of them will have to praise with them, leading for someone else to get hurt, you two see what I'm saying right?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Good, I like both you boys and I'd hate to see the other win because of a dumb mistake. Side even if you weren't working your teams to the bone neither of you could have the pitch tonight?"

"Why not?" Wood asked.

"Ravenclaw booked it twenty minutes ago."

"Davies," both boys hissed, Flint shook his fist and Wood snapped defeatedly. Lucy shook her head, her laughter bounced off the corridor walls.

…

Remus Lupin, as the pair performed their patrols told Lucy about the time Harry Potter's father, James, tried to duel the Giant Squid because the boys then seventeen year old mother had joked she couldn't go on a date with him because she and the Squid already had a romantic evening planned.

"—so there he is, knees deep in the lake yelling at the squid to come out and face him like a man when—" Lucy looked away from Remus when the faint sound of something falling over caught her ears.

"Shush," Lucy told Remus, holding a finger up to his face, "I think I heard someone." Remus tensioned, his fingers tightened around his wand as he and Lucy tiptoed down the hall, growing closer to the sound of heavy breathing.

"Horny students or mass murderer?" Lucy murmured to Remus as they stood in front of a broom closet. Remus shot her a hard look that screamed for her to shut up.

"One," Remus breathed, "Two," Lucy rocked on her feet "Now!" He threw the door opened to reveal, not Lucy's escaped convict of a sibling but, Ophelia Lestrange and George Weasley, both of whom let out high pitched shrieks.

Ophelia's usually wild hair was more of a knotted nest of dyed orange. Her lipstick was smuggled and sneered along George's jaw and neck and not an inch of their clothing wasn't wrinkled.

"What the fuck are the two of you doing out past curfew?" Lucy hissed pocketing her wand as Ophelia and George stepped into the corridor. Lucy's eyes kept flickering from George to Ophelia to the ceiling; catching them felt like walking in on Mia and Charlie all over again, embarrassing. Only instead of spinning on her heels and walking away Lucy had to read them the riot act and look like boiling her eyeballs wouldn't be the first thing she planned on doing when she returned to her room.

"Talking?" George lied, his face and neck and exposed chest turned red. Ophelia wrapped her arms around her middle. She looked horrified.

"Talking?" Lucy repeated, "If the two of you were talking why are you practically wearing Ophelia's lipstick?"

"It's my shade?" George tried. Lucy wondered if Remus would cover for her if she strangled him. Surely Ophelia would if she didn't want Andromeda finding out.

Lucy reached out and harshly tugged on a long piece of George's hair.

"Ouch woman what the bloody hell was that for!" George asked scandalized.

"Snogging your girlfriend on my night of patrol you git! Do you know how awkward this is for me?"

"I can guess," Ophelia said rubbing her temples. Lucy turned to Remus,

"You're writing the letters home," she told him.

"Me why me?"

"Please don't tell mum you know she'll skin me and plan the wedding in the same breath," George pleaded. Lucy knew that; she had been there when Charlie had arrived at the Burrow after McGonagall found his hand up Mia's skirt their sixth year. Before that Lucy had never seen a someone so happy yet so furious at the same time.

"If you're going to write to one of my guardians can you please write to my uncle Ted," Ophelia asked Remus. If Lucy was in Ophelia's position she wouldn't want anyone to write to the Malfoys about being found in a broom closet with George Weasley either.

"We need to send a letter home, you're fifteen and snogging girls broom cubbies!" Lucy told George exasperated.

"You say that like I'm any girl!" Ophelia commented the same time George pointed out she had done the same thing in her time.

"You snogged girls in broom cubbies?" Remus asked with raised brows.

"It wasn't a cubbie." Lucy looked at him with a tilted head and pink cheeks. Remus looked like he wanted to expand further on that only for Lucy to turn away from him and look back at the two teenagers.

"And Professor Sinistra did write to my mother," though Lucy wasn't sure how her mother had reacted seeing as she had never returned home that summer break, instead opting to stay with the Weasleys for the entirety of the holiday only for the old hag to die two months into her sixth year.

"Can, can you write at least write to Bill or Charlie then?" George asked, "Ophelia and I, we don't mum and dad to know just yet, not before Fred." Ophelia looked like she had much to say on the topic only to clamp down on her bottom lip in order not to let any of her thoughts escape.

"What did we talk about in my office Georgie? Neither Freddie nor your parents will think any differently of you for dating Ophelia. Though your parents might if they hear how you broke curfew to—er—snog." Lucy knew they probably hadn't been just been snogging but thinking of the baby girl she had on more than one occasion held in her arms, and little boy, who at age six after finding out he couldn't marry his mother declared he'd marry her, snogging, much less doing anything other than snogging someone was weird.

"Can you send the letter tomorrow night then?" George asked, "Just so I can send mum and dad a letter first." Lucy looked at Remus with pleading eyes. She could live with that if he could.

Remus sighed. "You'd think at thirty three I'd be over peer pressure," He mumbled. Lucy beamed; she ignored the urge to lean over and peck his cheek.

"We can do that." Lucy told George. George grinned and wrapped Lucy in a tight thankful hug.

"Thanks Luce." Lucy fan her fingers through George's hair.

"Your welcome Georgie just remember you're serving detention with Filch tomorrow—and Ophelia with Sinestra."

"Damnit," both teens sighed. Lucy snickered, she pulled away from George.

"Yeah yeah life sucks now come on, back to your dorms—Remus would you like to walk George? I'll walk Ophelia."

"I'll meet you in front of the Great Hall," Remus said before leading one half of the Weasleys twins towards Gryffindor tower. Lucy couldn't help but stare at his butt as he did so, unaware of Ophelia taking notice. Not that she minded, the Slytherin teenager stared at her boyfriends.

* * *

**November 23, 1993**

Lucy sat in the back room of Hogshead tavern with her feet perched up on the desk in front of her. Remus Lupin leaned against the wall behind her, his arms crossed over his chest as a thin young man in a thick fur coat sat on the left edge of the desk.

Two men; one with long platinum blonde hair and a walking cane and another with salt and pepper hair and an engraved pocket watch walked into the room. Both of them wore expensively tailored robes and neither of them smiled.

"Lucius," Lucy stood up, "Sir Nott, I'm pleased the two of you could come. I'm sure you both remember Felix Rosier—" the man perched on the corner of the desk nodded amicably at the two other pure bloods, neither spared him a glance, "And this is my college, Remus Lupin. He teaches Defense up at the school." This time both men looked at the werewolf; though neither greeted him.

"Please take a seat."

"Why are we here Lucretia?" Lucius drawled as he sat in the seat across from her. Lucy, instead of sitting back down pulled open a draw and took out an old Prophet article. She handed it to Nott while looking at Lucius intending to show him that she was in charge.

"You'll both be, along with Fliex here who has already agreed to, threaten to pull your business from the Prophet should they not retract this article."

"Why would be do that," Lucius ground out. Lucy, with a sharp glimmer in her eyes, smirked at her cousin in law in a very Black manor that sent chills down the spines of every man in the room.

She didn't reply, instead she focused on Edwin Nott. Lucy vaguely remembered the man having drinks and cigars with her father in his study every Sunday before his passing.

"And if we don't?" Nott growled, his grip on the paper tightening.

"You men both escaped Azkaban when the war ended, claiming Imprius—"

"And?" Luscious hissed cutting her off. Lucy could hear her mother crowing in the back of her mind. _How dare he think he's more important than a Black! Show him better!_

"Should you not write the Prophet and demand a retraction a concerned colleague of mine—" Remus fluttered his fingers from his spot behind Lucy, "—Might write this Reeta Seeker and mention how I, the sister of the evil Sirius Black met with not just the brother of Evan Rosier but two accused Death Eaters."

The men stilled. Lucy's glare did not waver, her voice did not quiver as they stared her down. She did however lean back in her chair, chin pointed up as if she owned the world.

It was all in a very over dramatic power play Black family approved sort of way.

"What makes you think anyone would believe the word this Seeker woman would say?" Lucius threw the paper onto the desk. Lucy turned to Remus.

"Remus please leave us for a moment." Remus didn't hesitate to walk out of the room. Felix Rosier followed and stood in front of the door. It was when the door clicked shut Lucy didn't wait to cast Incarcerous on Lucius.

The man fell off his seat bound in ropes. He struggled. Nott flung himself off his seat.

"Bom—"

"Expelliarmus!" His wand shot over to Fliex who tossed it to Lucy. Lucy pocketed her own wand as Nott panted from the side of the room. Lucy looked over Lucius.

"People might believe this Skeeter woman if Aurors found you unable to remember anything due to hours of—well I wouldn't-" Lucy said with high, near hysterical sneer to her voice, "-Say fun seeing as it'd be absolute torture for you —and Sir Notts wand having been the one to perform it. I have total faith in Sir Nott and his ability to weasl out of any charges brought before him but it would get people thinking."

"You wouldn't, you don't have the guts!" Lucius spit. He wormed around the the floor, struggling with his bonds.

"Lucius," Lucy crouched down, "I was ready to kill you at sixteen for putting hands on Cissy why wouldn't I be ready to kill you at twenty two for the livelihood of someone I actually consider family?"

Lucius stilled. He was quite for a moment. "Fine."

Wearing a cat like smirk Lucy rose to her full height. She turned to Nott. "And you, your answer?"

"I will write the letter Lady Black." With a wave of Notts wand the ropes dispersed. She tossed the wand back to the eldest man who fumbled with catching it.

"You both can leave now," Lucy said. Neither man waited for another word before rushing past the Dragon Keeper and out the door.

Remus returned inside the room. He wasn't smiling but he was t frowning either.

"How did that go?" Remus asked.

"Wonderful, not that I expected anything else," Lucy said. She pulled out a bottle of fire whiskey and three glasses. Fliex and Remus took the seats Nott and Lucius had been occupying.

Fliex took his glass, "Not that I don't love being debated to you—"

"You're free of me," Lucy told the man who smirked. Lucy wasn't sure if she had ever seen the man genuinely smile. She was sure Chester had though. "How is Chester?"

"Well, he's working as a medic on the reserve."

"And Charlie and Mia?"

"Well." Lucy nodded. Felix Rosier had never been a talker and opposed to the other young boys who used to walk around their parents garden parties boasting of their fathers accomplishments she supposed saying only what needed to be said was better then spewing bullshit.

Remus looked at the two.

"How do you two know each other?"

"His mother used to attend my aunt Druellas garden parties," Lucy said, "We were also in the same house."

"And betrothed," Felix added. Remus choked on his whiskey.

"As into be married?" Remus' voice was high pitched and Felix's lips twitched up.

"Until he ran off with his school time sweetheart leaving me nothing but an I'm sorry note on the dinning room table."

"I was," Felix insisted.

"You act like I was mad you ran off—I wasn't. I was mad you ran off feeling like you couldn't have just said you didn't want to go through with the wedding. It's not like I loved you."

"Ouch," Felix said playfully, Lucy threw her hands in the air.

"You're gay!"

"Doesn't mean I don't have an ego." Lucy looked over to Remus and smiled weakly.

"Do you see what I had to put up with?" Remus struggled to smile back, only able to produce a weak grimace.

"Poor you."

"This is why you're my favorite Lupin."

"Favorite what?" Felix snarked. Lucy smirked,

"Wouldn't you like to know."

* * *

**a/n: to the guest and my lovely reader hiccups-and-sighs; thank you! to everyone who favorited and follwoed; thank you as well!**

**guest: Thank you for the review! I hope you like this chapter!**

** hiccups-and-sighs: Thank you for the comments on each chapter, it made my day! I hope you liked this chapter! **

**(Please keep the reviews comming guys! It really helps me write future chapters!)**


	6. December 1993 - chapter six

**December 1, 1993**

Sitting in front of her mirror late at night on the first of December, in nothing but her peach colored bra and cheeky plum and gold So you've caught the snitch panties with a nearly finished bottle of scotch between her folded legs Lucy threw herself a pity party.

Lucy smiled cruelly at the picture she had tapped to the mirror. It was a picture of her mother and father, neither smiling just holding their heads high and showing the camera that they owned the world, standing behind the chairs her brothers sat upon. An eight year old Regulus constantly switched from trying to smirk to a deadpan face. Sirius was holding a squirming baby Lucy in her arms. Lucy had long ago ripped his face out of the picture.

Lucy swayed as she raised the bottle in the air by its neck, "Now that—" Lucy hiccuped and giggled, "I have drunk most of my bottle we can start sharing stories of mother. I'll go first."

Lucy brought her knees to her chest and pointed at the tiny scars, "I got these when I wassssssss," Lucy slurred, she frowned trying to remember, "I was four! I said I wanted tobe in Gryffindor." Lucy had declared that at lunch. Her father, who usually handled the punishments had been sick, though not yet on his deathbed at the time, had asked her mother to handle Lucy. Walburga had thrown rice on the floor and told Lucy to kneel until she came back for her. Lucy's mother hadn't pulled her out of that corner until late after dinner that night.

Lucy lifted up her hair and leaned her head to the left. She pointed at a scar behind her ear. "Got this one from when dear old mummy here tossed me into the dinning table the one of the times I told her Reggie was dead." None of the people in the picture reacted, they just tipped their chins up and unsurly tried to smirk and kicked their feet against the legs of the chair, each of them locked forever in the moment.

Lucy took a long sip of scotch from the bottles mouth. She pulled away disgruntled. She had finished the bottle.

"Why is the liquor always gone when the party starts." A knock came from the door. Lucy didn't bother to stand; "Come in!"

Remus Lupin peaked his head in, "Lucy? Did you forget we have patrol tonight?" Lucy clammered to her feet. Remus' eyes widened when he saw what she was wearing.

If she were sober Lucy may have realized that it took Remus a few seconds longer than it should have to cover his eyes. Instead she just realized it was the Defense Professor. "Remus!" Lucy cheered drunkenly.

"Merlin Lucy why are you in your knickers?"

"I'm havin a party," she slurred, "The family an I are celebratin mums death. Wanna join?" Remus frowned pitifully.

"Lucy you shouldn't be celebrating your mother's death," Lupin said, "I know she hurt you—"

"Hurt me? The bloody blint tried to take my head off before I left for school, see." Lucy snarled, suddenly. Lucy pointed to the long thick scar that hung under her collar bones. Kreature hadn't given her mother back her wand after that, no matter the orders or the punishment.

Remus opened his fingers and peaked through them only to pale. He took in the tiny scars on her knees and the thick scar under her collar bone and the thin splintered scars on her left forearm. He then turned green, then red.

He lowered his hands and hesitantly reached out to touch them before pulling his arms back.

"Your mother did these?" His voice was small and fragile. Lucy, too drunk to notice nodded. "She also did these."

Lucy turned around to show off the scars she had gotten after he had run away. There were about four of them, each long enough stretch across one end of her back to the other.

"She used dads belt—used his cane a lot too actually but that never left a scar. It was almost like the incestuous bastard was back," Lucy told Remus leaning against the chest at the foot of her bed. She sat on top of the chest, her arms limply at her side and her posture anything from the way her mother had taught her to properly sit.

She offered Remus the empty scotch bottle. "Want some?"

"No," Remus told her. Remus sighed and took the bottle anyway, he set it on the counter. "Come on it's time for bed."

"You gonna stay with me?" Lucy wondered coyly as Remus started to help her to her feet, his hands around her wrists. Lucy bumped into his chest and giggled. He smelled like dried ink, pine needles and warmth, the kind of sent you would smell on a hot summer day, the sent people said wasn't actually there but you knew was because even sunshine smelled like something.

A hot blush burned across his face all the way up to the tips of his ears.

"You're drunk," he told her leading her to her bed. He held her by her shoulders as he used one hand to move her covers.

"Drunk thoughts are sober words." Lucy frowned. _That's not the way it goes._ Her eyes narrowed_, Is it?_ Remus lowered her into the bed and gently tucked her in. Lucy pulled the heavy covers up to her nose.

Remus returned to her side a moment later with a purple potion he'd gotten from her bathroom medicine cabinet and a glass of water.

"Drink this when you wake up." Remus instructed. He moved Lucy's hair out of her face with the light touch of the tips of his fingers. He smiled sadly down at her, like she was a stray three legged dog he'd found on the side of the road. "I'll tell Snape and Sinestra you're sick."

Lucy hummed in agreement, shuffling around under the covers getting comfortable.

"Hey Remus?" Lucy called, her voice sleepy. Remus, halfway out the door paused.

"Yeah Lucy?" Lucy closed her eyes and smiled. She liked how he said her name. She liked him.

"Feel free to join me at anytime." It was quite for a moment.

"Go to bed Lucy. I'll see you tomorrow morning." Lucy heard him mutter something else under his breath before the door closed.

* * *

**December 2, 1993**

The next afternoon just as Lucy was beginning to get over her head pounding, stomach twisting hangover Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood entered her office. Luna had flowers twisted into her hair, she wore overalls, a turnip earrings and a corked necklace. Ginny had one flower tucked into the pocket of one of Charlie's old checkered flannel.

"Hey Ginny," Lucy said. Lucy would have smiled too if she didn't feel like a family of fully grown Erumpents had run over her. "Hello Luna."

"Hey Lucy, is this a good time to ask for something?" Lucy snorted only to the groan in pain as doing so rocketed pain throughout the left side of her head.

Meiri would have tried to small talk first before asking for a favor, Ron would have come right out and asked it but Ginny Weasley wanted to know if now was a good time to ask for something. Merlin Lucy loved that girl.

"For you Gin? Anytime's a good time. Have a seat." Ginny and Luna sat in the stools in front of her, Luna gawked at the room as if it were a new undiscovered land. It touched Lucy, because while she knew her office wasn't as cool as Remus' who had a grindylow in a tank behind him or a single Cornish pixie in a gilded cage floating above them like a chandelier, it was still her office.

"Can you teach me how to play Quidditch?" Ginny asked.

"Gin you already know how to fly."

"I mean like real Quidditch." Lucy leaned forward.

"Ginny love you already know how to play real Quidditch." Lucy, having had known how alone the young girl had felt, had made sure to take her to games once all the boys had gone off to Hogwarts.

"Not really! I've seen the games but Bill, Charlie—none," Ginny emphasized, "Of the boys let me play with them." It was true, whenever the annual Weasley family Quidditch match happened Ginny was usually left to sit on the sidelines in the garden chairs with Meiri and Percy, neither of who actually liked to fly.

"Bill and Charlie just don't want to see you get hurt," Lucy said. Ginny looked at Lucy with large pleading eyed that didn't actually have any hold over her after twelve years of use. But the heartfelt Please Ginny had whined did.

Lucy looked up at Regulus' broom; he had taught her to fly, how to be a Seeker like himself. She could teach Ginny just like he taught her. Bill could also kill her. Not if he doesn't find out until she's already too good to stop.

"Alright—" Ginny cheered, "—But the moment, and I mean the exact moment, your grades start to slip we're stopping. Understand?" Ginny nodded.

"Okay then. You're going to start off running with me around the lake every day after you've done your homework and on weekend mornings and eating right, lean meats, vegetables healthy shit— to be honest just eat whatever Oliver Wood does okay?"

"Okay."

…

Lucy walked out of her office with Ginny and Luna, the two girls on their way to transfiguration to learn how to transform rats into beautiful goblets, and Lucy to the Defense classroom where she would wait around to beg a certain werewolf to forget she had ever made drunken passes on him the night before.

Lucy arrived at the Defense room just as Remus' fifth year Ravenclaw and Hufflepuffs let out.

"Hey Madam Lucy!" Roger Davies smiled.

"Roger how goes it today? Have a good lesson with Professor Lupin?"

"I guess," Roger shrugged. Lucy's raised both her thinly plucked eyebrows. From the praises Dean Thomas had sung in the corridors it seemed like everyone loved Remus.

"Oh?"

"A bunch of us, all us Captains and a bunch of the players too, we all heard from Wood who heard from Weasley about Professor Lupin yelling at you so we agreed to stand by you." Lucy's face melted, he heart thudded loudly in her chest.

_These kids are so sweet._

"Thank you Roger, that means a lot to me," Lucy told the boy tenderly. He blushed and rubbed the toe of his show into the floor. "I really appreciate it, I do."

"I'm sensing a but," Roger said. Lucy nodded.

"You're correct. While it warms my heart Professor Lupin has since apologized. So there's no need to not have fun in his class anymore. I hear next to mine it's the funnest in the castle."

"It is," Roger said somewhat bashfully. Lucy clapped the young man on his shoulder,

"Thank you though. Really."

"You're welcome Professor," the Ravenclaw said before jogging up to his friends. When the last of the students had left Lucy entered the classroom. Remus' back was to her, he was shuffling the papers on his desk. Lucy admired him for only a second— or ten —before she cleared her throat to get his attention.

He wheeled around only to turn a bright vibrant red when he saw Lucy.

"L-Lucy, you're up and walking around."

"I took the hangover potion you left," Lucy said. She leaned back on her heels. Remus swallowed the spit in his mouth, his wide eyes flickered between her and the low hanging cast iron chandelier.

"You remember last night." It was less a question and much more a statement.

"I do, which is why I'm here. I wanted to apologize," Lucy told him taking three steps in his direction before stopping. She wanted him to have personal space, not to feel cornered.

"Apologize? For what?"

"Hitting on you," they both knew her asking him to join her in bed was more then just simply hitting on him, "You've made it quite clear you don't feel that way for me and no matter how drunk I was that doesn't give me an excuse to invite you into my bed when I should have known it would have made you uncomfortable."

"Uncomfortable? I'm not—" Lucy cut him off,

"Remus you can barely look at me."

"Not because I was uncomfortable," Remus told her. He leaned against his desk and drew his eyes from the ceiling to settle on Lucy's face. He waved his wand and closed the door. Lucy sat herself atop the desk in the first row, closet to him. "How I've acted has nothing to do with what I feel for you Lucy. Apologizing for the kiss, not being able to look at you, I'm ten years your senior Lucy. You're twenty two."

"And?" Lucy's own father had been nearly thirty when he became engaged to her sixteen year old mother. Her uncle Cygnus nearly several years older then her aunt Druella. Her very own grandfather has been twice his wife's own age when they'd met so what little did ten years mean in retrospect?

"There's also what I am."

"You know I don't care about that," Lucy told him. She stood up from the desk; all Lucy wanted to do was reach out and take him into her arms. To prove to him that she didn't care about the age difference or his condition or anything else, just him.

"I would never be to take care of you Lucy." Lucy blinked, she had a dozen rebuttal arguments for that. The first being, she had more money than anyone else in all of the United Kingdom's. The second was she was a perfectly capable woman and it was nineteen ninety three, not nineteen twenty two, and she didn't need anyone, man or woman to care for her.

She went with the third argument though. "I'm not looking for a ring Remus." Lucy wasn't simply looking for a good time either but she would take what he would give her. Lucy wasn't in love with him but she knew what she felt for man, waking up and her first thought being of him, that it was more than a just a passing fancy.

"If people found out Lucy, about me and then you and me, you'd be burned at the stake."

"Take a look in the papers Remus I've been burning for the past six months." Remus, for a second looked like he was going to agree. His hands twitched and his arms seem to strain themselves in order not to raise and grab her around the waist.

"We're friends correct?" He asked. Lucy nodded.

"Yes of course." Anyone who had seen her cry was either her friend or dead, or had to die immediately.

"Then as my friend please respect my decision not to pressure a relationship with you."

What else could she say? "Of course Remus."

"Thank you."

"I need to get ready for my Gryffindor and Hufflepuffs, I'll see you at dinner," Lucy told him before walking out the door. She heard his farewell as she was turning out the door.

Lucy was halfway back to her office when she heard a scuffle from the other side of a broom closet.

_I swear on Salazar's tit if this is Georgie and Ophelia again I'll murder them myself._ Lucy thought. She threw open the door.

Lucy knew that when she found two students in a broom closet that she was supposed to dock points, write a letter home and give them detention. However what Lucy was unsure about was what she was supposed to do when she found two Professors in a broom closet.

Professors Burbage and Sinestra both stood at the opening of a previously occupied broom closet. Professor Burbage looked thoroughly debauched, her skirt was wrinkled and her blouse was hastily buttoned while Professor Sinestra looked anywhere other than Lucy.

"You two have rooms, right? Dumbledore isn't making you sleep in the kitchens with the elves?" Lucy asked them. She briefly wondered if her own face was the color of the Gryffindor banner.

"Yes we have rooms," Sinestra snapped. Burbage elbowed her in her ribs.

"Be nice," she hissed to her girlfriend? Fling? Lucy had never seen the two be anything more than friendly to the other. They certainly didn't act like the love sick school girls Pomfrey and Sprout did, that was for sure.

"I just wanted to know because the two of you were in a closet like horny sixth years instead of in your rooms like the adults you are."

"It was closer," Burbage murmured, "Besides it's not like it's an everyday thing."

"No of course not, I sure the two of you use the Astronomy tower more frequently," Lucy snickered. Burbage flushed a rosy pink. _Oh my Merlin! I cannot wait to tell Penny and Bill! Sinestra took a step forward._

"I don't know what's so funny Black—"

"Just the fact that two of age adult Professors have resorted to the same tactics horny fifth years use to get some," Lucy quipped. Sinestra raised her and and slowly curled each finger into her palm before shaking it; pretending to strangle Lucy before petulantly storming away leaving Burbage and Lucy behind.

Lucy could ear the woman's boots echo through the halls long after she had left.

"No wonder she and Snape get along, they both have very dramatic exits," Lucy laughed.

"Lucy I know you and Aurora aren't in the best footing but if you could do us a favor and not tell anyone? We could both get into trouble if Minerva or the Headmaster were to find out we were in a broom closet."

_After all Sinestra has said? Ruin her. Destroy her until she's learned not to cross a Black_. Lucy blinked and smiled easily, pushing that evil little voice in the back of her head into a nice dark and forgotten about corner.

"Of course Burbage, professional curiosity and all."

Burbage shook Lucy's hand firmly, one of her hands clasped over the interlocked two. "Thank you."

Lucy shrugged, "What are colleagues for?"

…

Later that night after dinner as the three of them left the Great Hall Lucy looped her arms with both Remus and Sprout. Remus leaned down and Lucy hunched over to Sprout, and grinned wickedly. She ignored the sparks that shot up her arm.

"You two will not believe who I found in a broom closet today…"

* * *

**December 9, 1993**

Lucy was sober this time around for her patrols. She was also fully dressed, though she wore comfortable sweatpants and a large sweater instead if the muddy robes she had previously donned throughout the day.

As the pair of them patrolled the halls the two Professors talked about their Holiday plans.

"I think I'm just going to holl up with a new book and some good tea," Remus said.

"Alone?" Lucy raised a brow.

"I mean I'll probably spend some of my day with McGonagall and Hagrid and such, but yes, mostly alone."

"On Christmas?" Lucy wondered sounding scandalized.

"Yes? I mean there's not much else for me to do other then that is there?"

"Of course there is, go to a friends—"

"I would but they're all dead." Lupin reminded her tightly. Lucy threw him a dry and somewhat dirty look. She knew they were all dead.

"Then come with me to Andy and Teds for dinner," Lucy invited having decided she was going to spend Christmas Eve with her cousin when Bill informed her that he would be spelunking for treasure due to last minute Goblin made arrangements and after Mr and Mrs. Weasley had wrote that they would, once again, be spending their holiday in Romania with Charlie and Mia.

Christmas Day like always would be the party she always threw. So far the only people not to RSVP were her colleagues asides from Sprout, Flitwick and the werewolf next to her.

"I can't it's a day for family," Remus denied shaking his head. "Besides I'll be seeing you the next day anyway."

"Christmas Eve is friends too," Lucy added, "And who cares if you'd see me the next day? Honestly Remus you'd be doing me a favor if you came."

"Yeah? And how so?" He asked.

"When I appertate over there I'll be bringing Ophelia and George with me, and Dora and Penny will be there and Andy and Ted of course, meaning if you don't come I'll be surrounded by couples all by my lonesome self."

"Poor you," Lupin said dryly.

"Exactly, so why don't you scrounge up that Gryffindor chivalry or whatever you lions have and save me from a night of Andy and Penny asking me when I'm going to settle down with a nice someone."

"I don't know," Remus teased, his mustached twitched under his smile and Lucy remembered what it felt like to have it pressed against her own upper lip. "The experience could humble you."

"Like I need to be humbled. Just because I know I'm the best doesn't mean I have a big ego it just means I'm amazing at seeing the truth." Remus sucked his teeth.

"I don't know…"

"Please?" Lucy pouted. Her cheeks hollowed as her bottom lip jutted out and her interlocked hands rested under her chin. Her grey eyes twinkled pleadingly. "Please?"

Remus frowned begrudgingly after a moment of staring. "Fine." Lucy broke out into a smile. Remus pointed his finger at the tip of Lucy's nose and in a faux stern tone told her; "But don't use that face on me again if the students find out I'm a sucker I'll never get control of them."

_Lean in and kiss his finger. Do it! He'll be so flustered!_ Lucy nearly leaned in just to it; Remus red faced and stammering. It was better than anything her dreams could come up with but she didn't. Because they were friends.

Lucy smirked instead, "Of course not Professor," she promised coyly. Remus took a sharp intake of breath and nodded somewhat stiffly. She wasn't flirting. She wasn't. They had agreed to be friends, she was teasing him. Friends teased each other all the time.

"Good now come on, perhaps Sinestra broke off from Snape to find another broom closet." Lucy clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Stop, no, come on I promised to Burbage I wouldn't say anything you can't make jokes like that."

"We'll see," Remus said just as coyly speeding up his pace.

* * *

**December 11, 1993**

Lucy, leaned over her fireplace, the heat of the embers warmed her face from the cold December wings. She was wearing the large Destiny's Child shirt she had nicked off Bill— a present Ben had given him for his sixteenth birthday —before he went to Egypt and an old pair of boxers she wasn't quite sure where she'd gotten them from when said Curse Breakers face appeared in her fireplace.

"Happy early Birthday Luce!" Bill Weasley cheered. His grin stretched across his fiery face.

"Thanks Bill!" Lucy beamed back. "How's Egypt?"

"Alright, it could be better. The Goblins are over workings everyone at the moments and I nearly got mauled by a sphinx when someone on my team answered one of its riddles wrong and the muggles keep blowing each other up over here so you have to watch your step—" Bill drawled,

"Merlin Bill!" Lucy exclaimed. Bill laughed, brightening up considerably, "But hey that girl I told you about, the one from the tattoo parlor? She finally said yes to date."

"At least you'll get some before we have to have you shipped home in tiny boxes," Lucy told him.

"It's not that bad, honestly. You were in just as much trouble when you were playing!"

"Not-uh, I never had magical creatures trying to maul me to death because I got a riddle wrong nor did I have to watch my step because of the muggles!"

"No you were just at risk of falling and breaking your neck."

"Salazar Bill you're just as bad as your mother," Lucy told him fondly. The mountain she had been carrying on her back seemed to crumble with every passing good natured jab and joke. It was like she was eleven all over again and all she needed to keep her head above the water was Bill Weasley.

"I—HOW DARE YOU!" Bill yelled scandalized, "I am your friend for twelve years and this—comparing me to my mother is how you repay me?" He was trying not to smile, laughs kept escaping from between his lips.

"And how you would like me to repay you Weasley?" Lucy snorted. When they'd been younger they used to trade favors for chores. He'd owe her one if she woke up at dawn and de-gnomed the gardens or she would owe him if he changed one of the kids diapers.

"Kiss that bloke of yours." The laughter died in Lucy's throat.

"Bill," she said.

"Tonks wrote Mia who wrote me, they both say you really like this guy, Tonks said you're bringing him over to her mums for Christmas."

"He doesn't like me," Lucy said.

"Did he say those exact words?" Bill asked softly. Lucy grimaced.

"Something along those lines. He—he has a lot of baggage Bill. He doesn't want a relationship cause of it," Lucy explained.

"He got a kid or something?"

"Nah, he's—" Lucy couldn't betray Remus' trust like that. She had never kept anything from Bill before, not her mother's abuse, not the conversations she'd secretly heard as a child when she was supposed to be asleep, but this? This wasn't her secrete. "He's sick and he doesn't want anyone around because of it."

"How sick?" Bill asked sympathetically, she wasn't sure if he was sorry for Remus because that was the kind of guy he was, or if he was sorry that Lucy liked a sick man.

"Sick as in they don't have a cure," said Lucy. Bill blew out a breath of air from his lips.

"You sure know how to pick em," Bill teased lightly, though Lucy could tell by his voice his heart wasn't in the joke.

"What does that mean?"

"First you snog Jane who serves what? Six months in Azkaban for something, Merlin only knows, then there's Lynch who's a bloody fuck toss pot—"

"Adrian and I were never exclusive—"

"—And now this bloke."_ A werewolf_.

"When you put it that way…" Lucy trailed off snickering. After her snickers died, for what felt like the longest time only the crackling embers could be heard.

"You like him?" Bill asked suddenly, "Really like him?"

"Yeah." Lucy said, "I do."

"Then stick with it. Sooner or later something will give."

"I don't want him to be with me because I wore him down Bill, I want him to be with me because he likes me the same way I like him."

"And he will Lucy just stick with him and show him you're not going anywhere, no matter how sick he is. Trust me sooner or later he'll come around, according to Barnaby it's impossible not to be in love with you." Lucy snorted loudly.

"This is the second time I'm hearing about this, since when has Barnaby liked me!"

"His second year? Merlin are you blind? All he used to do is study creatures, follow Murela and Mia around to help with the Vaults and chase your bloody coat tails!"

"I—no. Oh I feel so bad I used to call him kid!" Bill belted out a laugh.

"I remember that. His face used to fall, it was great entertainment."

"You're a git!"

"You're a tosser!"

"Am not!" And for the first time in the longest time Lucy stayed up all night because she was laughing, not because of nightmares or undeserved guilt but genuine happiness.

* * *

**December 15, 1993**

_His hand snaked lower, and lower until it had well surpassed the lining of her panties. The panties— black lace bikini style panties —were far nicer than Lucy could ever remember buying. Her bra had long since been discarded. His fingers danced along the joint where her thigh met her pelvis. She leaned her head back and opened her mouth to moan—_

When she was rudely awoken. As Lucy felt three teenage girls pounce on top of her, the sounds of Zonko fireworks and laughter going off in the background Lucy let out a strangled squawk of a sound.

""You're up!" Meiri Prewett grinned from on top of Lucy's thighs. Ginny Weasley, from her spot on top of Lucy's stomach, smilied just as wide as her cousin, as did Ophelia Lestrange from her spot near Lucy's ankles.

"Why?" Lucy moaned.

"Cause it's your birthday!" One of the twins cheered as his partner in crime set off another set of the indoor fireworks. Lucy heard Professor Sprouts giggle. Lucy pushed her elbows underneath her and peaked over the giggling girls and saw the rest of the teenage Weasleys, Percy and Ron each held two gifts in their arms, two more sat on the crate at the end of the bed, and Professor Remus Lupin— Lucy blushed deeply at the sight of the man—talked to the Head Boy as he held a small vanilla cake in his arms, strawberries and blueberries sprinkled prettily on the top.

"All this for me?" Lucy smiled, "I must be special." The room preformed a collective eye roll.

"What happened about not having an ego?" Remus wondered.

"Its my Birthday Lupin, I can have an ego if I so please."

"Of course, my mistake," Remus replied. He failed to conceal his smile as he moved towards the isle countertop. The girls rolled off of Lucy allowing her to sit up properly. Lucy threw her legs over her bed, having forgotten shed word her bright pink duck pajamas to bed.

"Nice pajamas Lucy," Ron laughed. Lucy glared at the thirteen year old boy.

"Seeing as I never made fun of those awful Quaffle footies you wore until you were eight, you Ronald are not allowed to come after my duckies." Ronalds ears burned red as the twins laughed loudly at their brothers expense.

"Lucy come on," Sprout hurried, lighting the cake. Lupin drew the windows and the group began to sing a very loud, very off key retention of 'Happy Birthday' while Lucy awkwardly stood there, her bare feet cold against the wood floor of her room.

She had never understood why people sung at birthday parties, it was awkward. To stand around, the candle's flame hot on your face as you struggled to look at somebody because everyone was staring at you.

Lucy looked at the twins, George had his arms around Ophelia and Fred had his around his twins shoulder. She looked at Ginny and then Meiri, the latter had been jumping in place. Ronald looked down at the floor, mumbling the words along and Percy who the twins had apparently wrangled into an ugly party hat swayed in the corner with Professor Sprout, who had grabbed him around the elbows.

Lucy then looked at Remus who stood on the other side of the counter across from her. His smiled, nothing big and flashy but a smile that warmed her all the same.

"Make a wish!" Meiri cheered as the song ended.

Lucy didn't hesitate to suck in a deep breath and blow out the flickering hot pink candle; she knew what she wanted. I want everything to work out. I want Ron and Meiri and Harry and Hermione safe and I want someone to love me like Sprout loves Pomfrey.

Remus handed Lucy a large knife to cut the cake. She handed the first piece to him; only to beam when she saw it was a sponge cake.

"Where did you get a cake like this? How did you know I liked this kind of cake?" Lucy asked looking a the object of her affections and sexual frustration. Remus shrugged,

"Professor Sprout and I found this lot sneaking into your room this morning, they were the ones with the cake.

Lucy pulled the closest Weasley to her, which so happened to be a tiny Ginny Weasley, and squished her against her side.

"Merlin I love you all so much!" Lucy gushed truthfully. She couldn't imagine her life without each of the Weasleys, not just Bill and their parents, but each of them. Ginny laughed.

"We love you too, now cut the cake, I'm starving." Lucy pushed the young girl away lightly into her cousin,

"You just want me for my cake."

"That's not true," Ophelia denied, a sly, very Slytherin smirk on her face. "We also want your skincare routine."

"That is valid, It's a ten step routine, I'll write it down for you later."

"Thank you," Ophelia said to Lucy as George passed her a slice of cake. "And thank you." She pecked George on the cheek. All the other Weasley children, Percy and Meriri and Lucy included, made sounds of disgust. Remus and Sprout chuckled. Lucy made sure everyone had a slice of cake before shoveling her own into her mouth in a very unladylike manor that most likely had her mother rolling in her grave.

She moaned loudly. Remus' face burned red and Percy stared blankly at his plate for a moment; both the twins and Ophelia shifted awkwardly. The last time Lucy could remember tasting a sponge cake as good as that was her on her eighth birthday.

"You're five," Remus pointed his fork at Lucy swallowing his own bite.

"Excuse me dear sir I'm at least nine. I can tie my own shoes."

"Forgive my mistake," Remus rolled his eyes. He smiled into his cake. "This is excellent cake."

"It is," Lucy nodded, she looked to Percy who was talking chess strategy with Ron, "Perce where did you guys get this cake?"

"We asked that elf of yours," he told her. Both Remus and Lucy started coughing.

"You asked Kreature?" Lucy asked after clearing her airway.

"That elf is still alive?" Remus questioned.

"You know Lucy's house elf Professor?" Ophelia asked Remus. Remus turned to answer Ophelia.

"You said you had ordered him to answer to us if we needed something and Meriri had this idea—" Meiri cut her cousin off;

"You can't spend this year with Bill so why not have the cake you used to rave about? So we called Kreature."

"Was he nasty again?" Lucy asked. The whole reason Lucy had left the old house elf in her childhood home and not with Molly Weasley like she had planned after her mother's death was because after years under the thumb of Walburga Black had twisted the poor creature into a bitter, grouchy thing of a being that without second thought would spit the meanest of words at small children.

"He got nicer when we asked him to make the cake for you," Meiri explained.

"He called us dirty blood traitors," Ron said over his cousins shoulder. Meiri threw a dirty look at Ronald.

"And he immediately punished himself for it," Meiri said. For the longest time she had claimed that Kreatures nature hadn't been his fault and that, in her opinion, if nobody believed he could do better he never would. It was because of that Lucy didn't have the heart to tell her that she had long ago ordered Kreature to never insult the Weasleys, Meiri or the Tonks again and that if he punished himself for calling them such a nasty word it was only because he had disobeyed her order.

"You're to kind Meriri," Lucy sighed. If it wouldn't have killed the poor house elf Lucy would have long ago given his ownership over to the kind girl.

"I am aren't I?" Meiri laughed.

Percy raised his fork in the air, almost as if he was raising his hand in class.

"We should do presents before we have to leave for class," he said. Fred and George groaned at the mention of classes.

"What time is it?" Ophelia asked.

"Quarter past seven." The twins groaned louder.

"The two of you have me first," Remus said to the two boys, he turned to Lucy as Sprout and Ginny and Percy got the presents, "Should I be offended?"

"They have double O.W.L level potions after you." The twins groaned even louder. Remus nodded understandingly.

Ginny pushed Lucy's second plate of cake away and put a small present covered in bright purple wrapping paper in front of her.

"We all chipped in for this." Lucy's eyebrows raised impressed. She carefully peeled back the wrapping paper and gaped at the dark blue and purple Quidditch jersey. Lucy picked it up and looked at the back. Over the number— her number —fifty five were the words 'BST BIG SIS EVR'.

Lucy's heart melted. Tears welled up in her eyes and her lip started to quiver.

"Thank-" Lucy's voice cracked, "Thank you, guys. This means a lot."

"Family hug!" Meiri shouted. She launched at Lucy, as did Ginny, Ron and the twins.

"Come on Perce!" Lucy laughed. Percy moved from Professor Sprouts side and slowly wrapped his arms around the calomerate that was part of his family. Lucy beamed, her heart growing against her ribcage, filling with love for the people who called her their family. The people she called her family. When they pulled away Ginny handed Lucy another present.

"This one is Bills!"

Lucy didn't bother to preserve the plain happy birthday wrapping paper. She opened the long boxes top and atired down at the leather jacket inside of it.

"Lucky it's just like Bills!" Fred said, awed. Lucy took it out of the box. The shoulders were spiked and there was a patch on the right inside pocket that read; 'what is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly'. Ron stumbled back as the spider in the patch moved along the web.

Lucy neatly laid down the jacket and moved the box to the bed. She opened Ophelia and Andys present next. Lucy marveled at it for a moment as she held it against her body. It was as beautiful long dusty purple spaghetti strapped dress that had a long slit up the side and sloped deep between the breasts.

Lucy tightly hugged Ophelia and kissed her forehead.

Next she was given Mr. and Mrs. Weasleys gift. Mrs. Weasley had knitted Lucy a warm pair of socks; Lucy knew her sweater was bound to come on Christmas with everyone else's. She had also been given a tin of homemade fudge, and a large rubber duck with a flower painted on the side of its head.

After that Lucy was handed Mia and Charlie's gift. It was a tiny Antipodean Opaleye dragon that had been so lifelike Lucy, for a moment, wondered if thepair had given her a real life palm sized dragon.

"I think I'll call you Norbert," Lucy grinned. Meiri and Ron stilled.

"Norbert?" Remus asked, "For a dragon?"

"Yeah Luce," said George, "Why not something cool like Rocket Launcher or something?"

"It's an inside joke of between us," Lucy told them, setting Norbert down on the counter top.

Sprout handed Lucy the present from her, "You didn't have to Professor," Lucy said kindly, looking down at the rosemary plant and its hand painted pot. The designs were simple, Snitches and sunflowers.

"Oh posh it's your birthday. And I thought why not get her Rosemary." If Lucy remembered correctly, and she knew she had, Rosemary was used to both bring love and ward of nightmares. Lucy smiled at the older woman.

'Thank you Professor."

Remus handed her his.

"Oh Remus," Lucy gasped, "You didn't need to—"

"It's your birthday. Open it." Lucy did. It was a necklace, it was an ordinary necklace with a thin gold chain and her birthstone, a bloodstone, attached to it, and Lucy marveled at it like he had given her the Blue Belle of Asia.

"Oh Remus," Lucy squeaked, "Thank you." Remus's cheeks pinkened and Professor Sprout shared a look with three of the four oldest teens.

"It was nothing, really. Um," he swallowed, "Do you want me to put it on you?"

"I wish but wearing jewelry while flying is a—"

"Hazard," the room chorsed.

"But maybe you'd see if you came to dinner me," Lucy said somewhat shyly. Shyly enough to catch the attions of all the Weasley-Prewetts who hadn't before. "My cousin Dora, her girlfriend Penny—oh and our mates Ben and Rowen—they're taking me to get Indian in London. You're welcome to come if you want."

"Of course I do," Remus said before he could think himself out of it.

"Why aren't you inviting us?" George teased.

"Probably because you aren't over seventeen."

"Percy is," Fred pointed out.

"Percy do you want to spend time with your Professor and four of your brothers embarrassing friends when you could be talking with your friends and Penelope?" Lucy asked knowingly.

"No?" Percy said, almost like he half expected for it to be a false question.

"There we go." Lucy smirked victoriously over at the twins. One of them muttered something that sounded like 'This is bull.'

"Maybe so," Lucy told them, "But you should probably ask Snape during your double Potions to make sure." Fred and George leaned their heads back and let out loud, inhuman groans as she both shook their shoulders, flailing their limp arms like a pair of petulant children throwing a tantrum.

Lucy cackled.

_Best Big Sister Ever._

…

Despite the fact that all of Lucy's Friday classes took place in the morning it had still taken the Birthday witch all the way up until right before the time she had agreed to meet Remus to change out of her robes and into the necklace Remus had given her. It hung over the dark turtleneck that she, after a few minutes of debating, tucked into the jean skirt Andre had gotten her to by the last time he'd been in the country and thick tights.

Lucy debated on heels before deciding that there was no need, This is just a dinner amongst friends, she mused before wrapping her cloak around herself and walking out the door only to run into Remus Lupins boney chest.

The Defense Professor stumbled backwards, his hands grabbed her waist in order to stabilize them.

"Circe Lupin," Lucy teased, "Looks like you need some meat on those bones."

"You sound like my mother," he told her. His hands still on her waist.

"Seeing from what you've said about her I'm going to take that as a compliment and say thanks."

"Ego," Remus told her fondly.

"It's my birthday, I'm allowed to have an ego if I want to," Lucy said. His eyes drew to the necklace he gave her.

"It looks nice on you," Remus said.

"My ego?"

"The necklace," Remus said blandly.

"One day I'm going to get you to admit you don't mind my ego," Lucy told him before she added; "Not that I usually have one."

"I'm sure you will," Remus rolled his eyes, his lips fighting the fond smile she wanted to beam at the slightly shorter woman.

"Good, so now that we're both on the same page come on. We're meeting everyone at the restaurant. You're going to love Rowan."

"Oh?"

"She's a total nerd too."

"I'm a nerd?" Remus wondered his both brows raised.

"Would it make you feel better if I said you're a nerd with style?" Lucy answered his question with a question of her own.

Remus paused for a second before he nodded. "Yes."

"Then you sir, a a huge nerd with style."

…

Lucy and Remus had only just walked out of the alleyway they had apperated to and onto Kensington High Street when Lucy caught sight of her cousin and friends.

Though Ben was the tallest, a lanky blonde bean poll it was Dora's bright pink hair that drew Lucy's eyes to her first. Each of them were nicely dressed in muggle clothing.

Lucy cupped her hands over her mouth, "NYMPHADORA!" Dora's head shot around and just as equally loud the pink haired female shouted back,

"DON'T CALL ME NYMPHADORA YOU TIT!" Lucy laughed and turned to Remus,

"Don't lag behind," she told him before taking off into a full on sprint towards her cousin. "Please don't break—" Penny's pleas was cut off when, a foot from Dora Lucy lunged. Dora caught her, sort of, the twenty year old fell to the ground with a painful groan and a moanful 'I should have listened to my mum.'

"Get over it Dora you're stuck with me."

"I hate you so much." Lucy got off Dora and pulled her up.

"You say that but you know I'm your favorite cousin, Lucy said as Remus finally walked up to them.

"Nope that's Ophelia." Lucy glared playfully at her cousin before turning to Remus.

"Guys this is Remus Lupin—" Dora's eyebrows shot up, "—He's my colleague from the school. He teaches Defense. Remus this—" Lucy wrapped an arm around her cousin, who grabbed Penny's hand, and pulled the two gays up next to her, "Is my cousin Dora and her girlfriend Penny Haywood."

Remus stuck his hand out for Dora to shake, "It's nice to see you again."

"We've met?" Dora blinked. Lucy looked at Remus expectantly.

"I babysat you on occasion when you were younger."

"Right," Dora nodded,_ You knew Sirius_ went unsaid between the three. "Well it's nice to meet you again." Remus shook Penneys hand as Lucy brought Rowan and Ben who looked somewhat pale up to Remus.

"This is Rowan, she's Mia's best friend but we bonded when she used to follow Bill and me around."

"Yeah Rowan," Dora snickered, "Why did you used to follow her and Bill around?" Penny elbowed Dora in the ribs, though the blonde girl was snickering herself. Ben looked at the dirty curb.

"I hate you all," Rowan told Lucy and Dora.

"Ben Cooper," he introduced, saving Rowan from further riffing and Lucy and Dora from being brutally murdered by the youngest Slytherin.

"Pleasure," Remus said.

"Well now that you've met everyone we should probably get our table," Lucy said. The other four agreed. Dora slung her arm over Penny's shoulder and Penny wrapped her arm around Dora's waist. Rowan and Ben linked arms formally, the both of them devolved into snickers and Remus and Lucy walked into the restaurant side by side, his hand lightly brushing over the small of her back.

Zakia was a fancy restaurant. Lucy was the only one who wasn't phased by the hanging chandlers and beautiful granite flooring. They all walked up to the maître d' who was a thin Indian man with short hair and a long nose. He, in no way, looked impressed at any of them.

"Hi," Lucy greeted.

"We don't accept walk ins," the man said eyeing Remus and his sweater and Dora and her pink hair. Lucy frowned.

"We have a reservation under Black. I made it a month ago."

The man looked down at his book. he looked like he smelled something awful. "I suppose you did. This way." He grabbed five fake-leather bound menus and lead the five to a large circular table.

Remus pulled out Lucy's chair for her absentmindedly as he pulled his own out. Dora sat to her left

The man deposited the five menus on the table, "Your waiter should be with you shortly." He returned to his podium at the front.

"What an arse," Lucy muttered taking a menu, she passed one to Dora as Remus passed one to Rowan.

"Tell me about it, did you see how he was looking at Dora," Penny scoffed. Lucy hummed.

"So are am I getting a bottle of wine or are we getting individual drinks?" Lucy asked.

"How about both?" Rowan suggested.

"Alright. So for the wine how does the nineteen eighty nine Chateau Mouton-Rothschild sound?"

"It was rated what? Number four this year?" Lucy peered at Ben oddly.

"Since when do you keep up with wines?" She wondered. His cheeks turned a dark pink.

"The woman I'm seeing she's a wine taster," he told the group. Each of the women blinked.

"You're dating someone?" Dora inquired. Ben nodded shyly.

"A muggle girl I grew up with. We ran into each other at the market and caught up over some drinks and well we've beentigetherforafewmonthsnow."

"What was that last part?" Rowan fixed her glasses, leaning in.

"We've been together for a few months now."

"And were just now learning of her existence?" Lucy asked.

"We all know why you might be just now learning of her existence, but me?" Rowan blinked, "I'm offended." Lucy wanted to be offended by Rowan's statement but couldn't find it in herself to be. The brown girl was right, if anyone would be the last to know something about Ben Coopers life it would be her.

It was Lucy's sixth year, the Vaults still weren't fully opened or closed and Jacob was still missing and to add to whole mystery someone, a student, named R was still running around causing more trouble than ever.

Someone named R had attacked both Mia and Charlie. Lucy didn't know for a fact who this R was but she suspected. At first it had been Murela and then Islamda but after two years she was sure she had figured it out.

Which is why, _as Bill sat in the hospital wing, she had corned the younger Gryffindor boy Ben Copper. Her wand was pressed to his throat and his back was against the wall._

_"You're R," Lucy started._

_"N-no!"_

_"Yes you are," Lucy argued._

_"I'm not! I already told Mia that, she said believed m—"_

_"And yet after confronting you she is in the hospital wing. With Charlie."_

_"I-I I'm not R!" Lucy could kill him. Her hand was steady and her eyes steely. He had hurt Charlie, put him and Mia in the hospital wing, she could do it and sleep soundly the very next night._

_But she didn't have any proof to prove her claim._

_"Maybe not but let's make something clear Ben Cooper, if you are R, if you are the one that put Charlie and Mia in the hospital wing, I will kidnap you from your bed when you're fast asleep and throw you off the Astronomy tower. No magic just me pushing you to your death. Is that clear?" Ben shook. His eyes clouded over with tears._

_"Yes!" He squeaked. Lucy sneered at him._

_"Good."_

"What do you mean by that?" Remus asked Rowan who turned to Lucy.

"He doesn't—"

"—It wasn't relevant to any conversation we've ever had," Lucy defended herself. She turned to Remus. "The Vaults can control people, like the imperius curse," Lucy told him, "My sixth year someone named R— Ben —cursed Charlie and Mia into the hospital wing. I thought it was him but I didn't have any proof."

"She told me she'd kidnapped me from my bed while I was asleep and murder me if she found out I was R," Ben said. Remus looked wildly at Lucy and Ben.

"And you're still friends?" Ben shrugged

"I got where she was coming from, she's protective." Remus looked like he had many things to say to that only for the waitress, a brown teenage girl with a thick curly ponytail to arrive at the table.

"Hi!" She said cheerily, "Do you all know what you'd like to order?"

"Just the drinks so far," Lucy said somewhat apologetically.

"That's cool, do you want to tell me now or wait until you're ready to order your food?" Lucy looked over the table.

"Now please." The waitress took out her pad and pen. It was not a glitter gel pen. "Can we get the nineteen eighty nine Chateau Mouton-Rothschild for the table and—"

"A tea for me," Remus said.

"What kind sir?"

"Noon chi please."

"Very well, is that all?" The five of them murmured and the waitress set off to the kitchen. Lucy opened her menu again.

"Appetizers? Are we sharing like usual?" Penny wondered.

"Corse—right," Lucy turned to Remus, "Usually we order a bunch of appetizers and pick at everything. Is that alright?"

"Yeah of course."

"Cool. So sneered scallops, and a bunch of kabobs? Cause I know I want to try the spicy one, the tandoori chicken." Lucy then flipped to the main courses. The grilled lobster with spicy sauce stuck out to her.

"The jhinga shimla-mirch sounds nice," Rowan hummed, "So does the peshawari champen."

"The one with monkfish and yoghurt—ajwaini macchi, that sounds delicious. Pen?"

"I'm sure Ben and I agree, seekh kabab please."

"White people," Rowan snorted.

"Is not, we just have sensitive pallets," Penny argued.

"Remus here can't handle spices either Pen." Lucy nudged the man in the arm effectonaly.

"Like I said, white people."

"Bill And Charlie can handel spices," Ben pointed out.

"Only after years of Mia and me training them to. They cried when I made them eat maeundae galbijjim."

"What babies," Dora snorted.

The waitress came back holding a bottle of wine and a beautiful cup of pink tea. When she was done pouring out and handing everyone a bottle of champagne she once more pulled out her pad and pen.

"Are you all ready to order?"

"Yup," Rowan smiled. "So for appetizers we'd like the scallops and the tandoori chicken, jhinga shimla-mirch, peshawari champen, ajwaini macchi and the seekh kabab please."

"I'd like the fish curry please." Ben then ordered his murgh handi lazeez while Penny and Dora got nihari gosht and malabar prawn.

"You Miss?" The waitress asked Lucy.

"The grilled lobster please." The waitress turned to Remus,

"The paneer tikka masala?" Lucy looked at the waitress signifying her to wait a moment, and then at Remus.

"You did read it had spiced tomato sauce?" Remus pinkened and leaned in.

"I'm not sure if we're splitting the check four ways or—"

"No Remus, I'm paying," Lucy told him.

"But it's your birthday."

"Yeah but she's rich," Dora butted in. "In case you forgot Remus Lucy here is an heiress." The waitresses ears picked up.

"Yeah but it's your—"

"Remus I am never going to burn through the family money, not in this lifetime anyway, so to be fair I always by dinner."

"Always?" Remus wondered. Lucy grinned.

"Always so don't worry about the cost, sides the waitress gets forty percent and you do want the poor girl to make a living wage, don't you?" Lucy caught the waitress trying not to smile.

"Isn't it usually twenty percent?" Ben asked knowingly.

"Yeah but I'm rich and doing nice things makes me happy." Ben opened his mouth to resort only to close it when he looked at the muggle waitress.

"I, I guess. Can I change my order?" Remus asked. The girl nodded.

"Of course sir."

"Can I get the gosht dum biryani instead?"

"Coming up." The waitress collected the menus and genuinely beamed at the five of them.

"Now that those orders are out of the way," Lucy turned to Remus, "How about you tell us any embarrassing stories you have if Dora here."

"Birthday or not I will kill you!"

"I'll believe it when it happens until then, Remus?"

"Well there was this one time…"

* * *

**December 19, 1993**

Lucy, already in her fuzzy pajamas had been going over player files when Ron, Meiri, Hermione Granger and Harry Potter burst into her office, nearly sending her backwards in her chair.

"Bloody fucking hell!" Lucy swore, Hermione's jaw dropped, still not used to any type of Professor swearing, "What—you guys know knocking was invented for a reason right? That reason—" Lucy cut herself off when she saw Harry Potter's tear stricken face.

"What happened?"

"He was their friend," Harry croaked. Ron lead his friend over to a stool when Lucy stood from her chair and motioned Ron to set him here.

"Harry I didn't know what that mean? Who was who's friend?"

"Sirius Black." His voice was raw and he refused to meet Lucy's eye. Her blood stilled.

"Did you see him?" Lucy asked with urgency. Meiri shook her head.

"We were in the Three Broomsticks, the minister was there with McGonagall and Hagrid and Rosmerta. They were talking about Si—your—him."

"What were they saying?" Lucy wondered.

"That he was my parents secret keeper, my dads best friend, "Harry spat, "That he sold them out to Voldemort—" everyone asides from Harry flinched at the name, "And killed Peter Pettigrew, his friend." Lucy sucked in a deep breath. "That he's my godfather."

"Did you know?" Ron asked his face stony. Meriri's fingers were curled around her knees and Hermione was hugging herself.

"About him being Harry's godfather, I knew that."

"And the fact he sold my parents out?" Lucy shrugged.

"Not until you stormed in here. Harry I swear I hadn't the faintest."

"How? He was—"

"My sibling. Yes, but he also ran away when I was five, right before his sixth year I spoke to him three times after that. Twice really."

"Then how did you know about him being my godfather?"

_Lucy had already gotten her wand and her books and her robes. She expertly ignored the stares and the whispers; she already knew she looked like her cousin Bellatrix LeStrange, supposed Death Eater; crazed maniac who keep escaping any and all charges brought against her. All she needed now was—_

_Lucy looked up at the body she had run into and her heart stopped._

_"Sirius?" The long haired man looked down at her in surprise,_

_"Goose?" His voice was a whisper, he kneeled down. Under his leather jacket Lucy caught sight of a half open button down and a magical tattoo under his collarbone. It was of a stag, it ran across her brothers skin, a dog was chasing it. All Lucy had under her collar bone was a thick scar._

_Sirius pulled her tightly against his chest. Lucy slowly reciprocated it._

_"You have a tattoo." She said dumbly. The last time she had seen her brother had been when she was five. Right before he had left he had promised— sworn —to write to her when she started school. She was ten now and she couldn't have helped but thought he had forgotten about her._

_She had never been so happy to be wrong._

_"Oh goose, I missed you." Sirius went to pull away but Lucy pulled him back to her. The last time someone held her was when Reggie had been alive. He had hugged her before he went off and died. "Who are you here with?" He asked._

_"No one. Myself." Sirius looked confused._

_"No you're not, mother would—"_

_"Mother is sick," Lucy told him, "She probably doesn't even know I'm gone." Sirius frowned._

_"Do you have anything else to get?" Sirius wondered. Lucy nodded, "Just stuff for Potions."_

_"Ew, Potions," Sirius scrunched his nose up, "I was terrible at Potions." She remembered. He had been a wiz at Transfiguration. Potions had been more Reggie's thing Lucy wanted to say. She didn't, instead she just smiled._

_"Yeah well that's only cause it's all rule following," she said. Sirius snorted. He rubbed the top of her head as he stood._

_"You're not wrong," he told her. "Come on I get a good deal at the Potions shop on high street." Lucy blinked at him. He wanted to spend time with her?_

_"Really?"_

_"Yeah of course I know—"_

_"No I mean you want to go with me?"_

_"Of course," Sirius told her, "You're my little sister." Lucy felt her chest warm, but also a nasty voice in the back of her head whisper that Reggie had been his brother and he had left him. He'll leave you, You're not worth half as much as Reggie._

_Sirius picked up her bag of books in one hand and Lucy grabbed his other, ignoring the voice._

_"So mothers sick? What kind?" Lucy ignores Sirius' victorious tone. She shrugged._

_"Crazy? Sometimes she forgets Reggie's dead." Sometimes she tries to cut off my head._

_Sirius frowned. "That was your note last year, wasn't it? About there being no funeral?" Lucy nodded._

_"I'm glad the found you."_

_"Was it yours?" Lucy shook her head._

_"No, just a post office owl." The pair walked in silence for a few minutes._

_"How would you feel about coming to mine for Christmas?" He asked suddenly. Lucy stopped walking and looked up at him. "It's just if mother is crazy I don't see you having many fun Christmas' and well, it'd be nice to catch up."_

_"You mean it?"_

_"Of course. I'll get Wormy to bring the casserole and Jamie can make the Sanna, and Lily, well she's not really the best cook and she'll probably have her hands full with Prongs Jr—"_

_"Who's Prongs Jr and Wormy?" Lucy felt slightly disheartened shed have to share some of her new found time with Sirius with Potter, especially after he had taken him away for five years but she was willing to do anything to stay with him._

_To get away from her mother._

_"Wormy is my mate Pete, and Prongs Jr. is Harry—" Sirius detangled his hand from Lucy's and pulled a picture of a brown messy haired baby from his Brest pocket. "He's James'. But my godson," Sirius boasted. Lucy looked up at Sirius._

_Reggie and Sirius used to tell her the other had dropped her as a baby._

_"Someone trusted you not to drop their kid?" Sirius shot her a sarcastic look._

_"Just because Reggie dropped you as a baby doesn't mean I'm going to drop Harry."_

_"Sure."_

_"Git." Lucy beamed. She had a brother again. She had her brother again._

"My mother wasn't well after my other brothers death. So I went school shopping alone. I ran into him after that. He showed me a picture of you."

"He betrayed my parents but carried a picture of me around?" Harry scoffed. Lucy leaned against her desk helplessly. "I want to say something to help you Harry but I don't know what that would be."

Harry sat there in silence for a moment.

"I hate him," he told Lucy.

"I do too."

"I wanted—" Harry looked at Ron and Meriri who both subtly nodded, "—I wanted to, want to," Harry amended, "Kill him." Lucy didn't react outwardly. She didn't blanch or gasp or anything any other Professor would have done, instead she kneeled down at Harry's side.

"Murder darkens the soul Harry. It destroys it."

"He got my parents killed."

"He did. He killed thirteen other people and he's my sibling. Which is why you shouldn't even think about facing him. I will—should he come onto the grounds again I'll face him Harry and I promise you I'll make him pay."

"You would really kill your own brother?" Hermione gasped.

Lucy looked over at the bushy haired girl. "If it came down to the safety of you kids and him I wouldn't hesitate." Hermione nodded, shaken.

Harry looked up at Lucy.

"Madam Lucy?"

"Yes Harry?"

"Please don't tell Professors Dumbledore or Lupin what I've said." Lucy wasn't sure if it wasn't because didn't want them disappointed in him or for them to dissuade him from his anger. It didn't matter either way, Lucy nodded.

"Of course Harry. Now to your dorms, all of you, it's almost curfew."

* * *

**December 25, 1993**

After breakfast the Lucy, Weasley-Prewett family, Ophelia and Harry Potter And Hermione Granger all sat on the floor of her room. The fireplaces crackled and the base of the tiny tree the elves had put up and decorated in the corner of her room was overflowing with presents.

Lucy helped sort the presents. While each of the children would have gotten their own presents under the tree in their common room the next morning Lucy had made sure she kept the ones from her under her own.

Percy opened his first. It was a book on Ministry regulations and under the cover was a letter. He looked at it oddly.

"Open it," she told him. He did only to then choke on his own salvia.

"How?"

"What is it Perce?" Meiri wondered.

"A letter from Mister Crouch, head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation!" Percy blinked. He stared at the letter like at any moment it could disappear. Hermione turned to look at the letter.

"Riveting," one of the twins snorted.

"It's a job offer, to be his right hand." Everyone looked at Lucy, Percy, who had finally pulled his gaze away from the letter looked up last. His tears watery.

"Thank you," he said sincerely.

"No problems Percy."

"How did you pull that off?" Ophelia wondered, "Everyone at the Ministry hates you."

"Sir Nott actually," Lucy said. Meiri sat up straighter at the mention of her somewhat secrete friends father. "Really?"

"Oh yeah, he knew my father so all I did was write him an owl er—asking if he knew any Ministry positions willing to take a prestigious Head Boy." Percy's ears burned red as Lucy handed the twins and Ophelia their presents next.

"Wicked!" Both twins chrosed. They held up an old Black family book on jinxes and charms. Lucy had read through both of them to make sure there was nothing in there that could potentially harm another student.

Ophelia marveled at a pair of beautiful diamond earring that had sat in the Black vault for the past hundred years.

Meiri, Ron, Harry, Hermione and Ginny got their presents next. Ginny got a pair leather steel toed boots that Lucy was sure the girl would wear until they were nothing but string.

Hermione, after blushing and telling Lucy she hadn't needed to, only for Ginny to tell the girl when it came to Lucy everyone got presents, got a stack of old books from the family library, some were on Arthmacy, others were on Potions, Charms and Defense. Like she had done with the twins books she had made sure none of the information inside of them was hazardous.

Meiri got a small basket of tiny things like she had wanted; she got a cake tins and paints for the pots of her plants and a muggle cookbook in baking, something the thirteen year old had started to take a shine in.

Ron got an ugly yellow hat that supported the Chudley Cannons and his annual summer tickets to the Cannon games, "Let me know when you want tickets for an actual teams games Ron," Lucy told the boy fondly. The red head stuck his younger out at Lucy and held the tickets to his chest.

And Harry got an album of pictures he had never seen before. Each one had his father, young and happy in it. Sometimes there was Professor Lupin, also young and not as scared and a small boy with straw colored hair and watery green eyes with him. In one there was a woman, his mother, Harry recognised, flinging a hex at the camera and photographer which promptly toppled over.

"Where did you get these?"

"Sirius' room." Lucy said. Everyone's heads jerked up at the mention of the mass murderer. "I took all his photos and either spelled him out or chose the ones without him in them."

"Why?" Harry wondered thickly. Lucy could see the conflict on the boys face, he wanted these pictures of the parents he never knew more then anything but he also felt like he couldn't take them because they had been Sirius'.

"Because I don't have nearly as many pictures of the people I miss."

"Thanks," Harry said flipping through the pages, showing Ron his father squaring up to the Giant Squid while Hermione and the twins looked through their books. Meriri and Ginny giggled quietly about something or other and Percy moved over to Lucy.

"Thank you you don't know how much this means to me."

"Of course I do Percy. There's a reason the hat almost but you in Slytherin and it certainly wasn't for your cunningness."

…

Lucy as she walked with Ophelia, later that night, cackled when she saw George Weasley standing outside the Great Hall. The boys hair had been gelled back and he was donning one of Bills old ties over his once white but now pink button down.

"I cannot believe you made Fred and Percy make we wear this," George muttered to Lucy.

"You look cute though," Ophelia told him. She was wearing the earrings Lucy had gotten for her. George's face heated up.

"Yeah Georgie your girlyfriend thinks you're cute. Like a flobberworm getting ready for a ball," Lucy teased. Bill, Charlie and Mia, after they had all heard about George spending Christmas Eve with the Tonks, had each separately instructed Lucy to torment George enough for the four of them.

"Don't listen to Lucy, you know deep down she thinks you look cute too," Ophelia told George.

"You're right but that's besides the point. If he can't take my teasing how is he supposed to handle Dora? Or Ted?" Both Ophelia and Lucy knew there wouldn't be any joking from Andromeda, just hard cold judgements passed just slightly to quick. Penny on the other hand would be neither of those things, she would be kind and accommodating to George know just how stressful meeting Andromeda Tonks Really was

"Can we go already? The sooner this night ends the sooner your aunt can probably hate me and I can kill Percy and Fred for dressing me like this."

"Auntie Andy won't hate you," Ophelia said the same time Lucy informed the couple _We're waiting on one more person._

"Who else is coming?" Ophelia wondered.

"That would be me Miss. LeStrange," Remus Lupin said coming up behind the two schoolchildren.

Lucy Black was not in love with Remus Lupin, the pair of them had agreed to simply be friends but as Remus stepped around George and Ophelia in a dark blue sweater that hung low enough to show off his collarbones and corduroy pants that Lucy was sure hugged him everywhere she almost wanted to ask the werewolf if he'd give her ten minutes to change his mind.

She didn't. Instead she smiled. She noticed that in his hands he carried a bottle of wine.

"Professor Lupin is coming with us?" George asked Lucy.

"If that's a problems—" Remus started,

"No!" Ophelia cut her Professor off, she elbowed George harshly in the ribs, Remus' eyebrows shot up, "No problem Professor."

"If you'd like Mr. Weasley feel free to call me Mr. Lupin tonight," Remus told George.

"It's cool Professor, I just wanna know, I won't have to raise my hand if I need you to pass the cranberries, right?"

"No but you'll need to remember your manors," Lucy snorted, she looked at Remus, "You look lovely Remus." A blush dusted over his cheeks.

"Thank you Lucy, you do too." Lucy smiled at the floor.

"Merlin," she heard George badly whisper to Ophelia. Lucy looked up and glared at the red head,

"Andy is going to eat you alive and I'm going to watch." George paled and Lucy tilted her head back. "Now come on you git. After you Remus."

"Thanks."

…

The Tonks home was a small cottage that stood somewhere in the middle of the Swinley forest. The outside of the cottage was a beautiful prestige white while the shutters and roof were a deep blue. Smoke blew out of the Stone chimney.

Lucy and the others walked past the enchanted gate Andromeda had built around the land during the first war and up the porch steps. Lucy turned to Ophelia, the pair grinned mischievously. Both George and Remus, trouble makers in their own rights, looked sick at the twinkle.

"You want to the honors?" Lucy asked the younger girl.

"You should, Imo can still ground me." Lucy rolled her eyes.

"Coward." She turned to the doors and then very frantically started pounding on the door. Remus and George jumped back.

"Lucy What—" Remus was cut off by a middle aged man answering the door. He smiled widely. The man was blonde, he had a slight gut and very kind eyes.

"One day Lucy you will break our door and Dromeda will kill you," he promised.

"If she hasn't gotten to old," Lucy said affectionately. Ophelia choked back a laugh. The man's eyes widened,

"Do not let her hear that. A kid at work called her old—"

"Please tell me she sent him to the jinx ward!" Ophelia said excitedly.

"That would have been kind. She sent him home crying, apparently he quite yesterday."

"She's my hero," Lucy whispered. "Anyway Ted this is my guest Remus Lupin, apparently you already know him."

Ted Tonks eyed the slightly younger man only to then, after a moment, smile warmly as he shook Remus's hand, "It's great to see you again Remus. It's been a while, how've you been?"

"I'm good, been good," he lied. When he stopped shaking Teds hand he handed the reporter a bottle of muggle wine.

"Here I felt terrible coming empty handed." Lucy heard George asked Ophelia if he was supposed to have brought something.

"Thank you."

"And this is George!" Lucy turned and pulled the young boy to stand in front of her, "Ophelia's boyfriend."

"Sir," George presented his hand. Ted took his hand welcomingly.

"It's Ted kiddo, Ophelia's told me all about you."

"She has?" Lucy snorted.

"Who else is she supposed to ask? Cissy?" Ted laughed at the idea.

"She could have asked you," George pointed out. Lucy shook her head.

"Nah I'm clueless when it comes to you blokes, you know? So's Dora."

"You talk to Dora about boys," Ophelia pointed out.

"Yeah but she's not actually helpful when it comes to advice," Lucy laughed. Doras advice for wooing Remus had been to blow him.

"Speaking of Dora and Penny are already in the living room. They're watching Rudolph."

"Is that a dog?" George wondered. Ted sighed.

"Purebloods, you're all the same. Come in, come in." Ted ushered the four into the warm home. Lucy could smell the glazed ham and bulgogi.

"Ophelia!" Dora cheered from her place under Penny; Dora had Penny tightly wrapped in her arms as the blonde sat in her lap humming the muggle Christmas song as the movie closed out.

"Dora! And Penny!" Dora pushed Penny off her— Penny fell to the ground with an indignant hey —to stand up.

"Is that ikkle George Weasley?" Dora spied as Ophelia brought Georgie over to her cousin. Remus, Lucy and Ted all stood in front of the doorway.

"Dora," Ted warned tiredly. Lucy leaned over to her cousin-in-law.

"You told her to be nice?"

"She wanted to invite Kingsley to scare the boy before I had to remind her Dromeda was scary enough."

"I don't remember Andromeda being that scary," Remus told the two. Both Lucy and Ted looked at the man side eyed.

"That's probably only cause you never pissed her off," Lucy said. "Where is Andy anyway?"

"The cemetery. She wanted Aramintas grave to look nice when she brings Ophelia there tomorrow." Lucy frowned at the mention of her late cousin.

"She's okay though?" Lucy wondered. It was one thing losing an older brother; Lucy supposed it was another having your little sister die, especially when the pair of you were as close as Andy and Ara had been.

"She says as time goes on it gets easier," Ted said. _That's a big fat lie_ Lucy thought sourly. Ted led Lucy and Remus into the kitchen as Dora interrogated George, who sat as far back as the sofa would allow, while Penny and Ophelia decided which movie to watch next. A Year Without Santa Clause or Frosty the Snowman?

Ted checked on the ham.

"So," he asked innocently, "You two are friends?"

"Yeah," Lucy nodded, she got out six wine glasses, she hope Ted wouldn't comment on her dejected tone. "DORA, PENNY DO YOU TWO WANT WINE?" Lucy shouted.

"WHAT KIND?" Dora shouted back. Lucy looked at the bottle.

"RED!"

"CAN I GET SOME?" Ophelia shouted.

"NO!" Ted hollered back. He looked at Lucy, "You know you don't have to shout." Lucy threw her hands out in front of her and turned to a snickering Remus. Lucy shot him a mean face to which he responded with a poked out tongue.

"So Ted?" Remus asked as Lucy poured the wine, "I think the last time I saw you was nearly fourteen years ago?" Ted nodded. "What have you been doing since then?"

Ted snorted. "Raising two teenage girls and hoping Dromeda doesn't piss Narcissa off so much that she sends her to murder us in our sleep."

"Lucius Malfoy wouldn't dare touch someone I love," Lucy said darkly.

"Dromeda likes to tell me when I say that that if he'd dare she'd hand his severed head as a door ornament to welcome Narcissa."

"Merlin," Remus said.

"You know when I was a kid I vaguely remember listening to everyone practice their threats after dinner."

"You guys would practice?" Remus asked slightly horrified.

_Apprently he had never clued his friends in on the Black family's holiday pass time_, Lucy thought dryly. "Course, I mean everyone was either dead, disowned or old by the time I became old enough but yeah practicing threats was a thing that used to happen. I got Bill into the habit later on in school years-Merlin is he terrible."

"Lucy kid, that doesn't sound less insane the more you and Dromeda remind me," Ted said. He pulled the ham out of the oven. "The potatoes need more time. Lucy do you want to bring Dora and Penny the wine?"

Lucy raised a brow.

"Ted I'm a fully grown witch, Remus is a fuller grown wizard."

"I know that now get." Lucy rolled her eyes and shot a sympathetic look at Remus, who silently pleaded with Lucy not to leave him.

"Fine." She pulled out her wand and two glasses of wine floated out of the room behind her; she sipped her own wine as she entered the living room.

Dora was no longer threatening George, instead Ophelia cuddled up next to him as he stared in awe at the television. A Year Without Santa Claus played. Dora and Penny were sneaking kisses.

"Alright break that shit up," Lucy told the two other Hogwarts graduates, "I got wine." With another flick of the wine the two glasses set themselves in two coasters on top of the dark wood coffee table.

"You're just jealous," Dora scoffed.

"Of what? Having my air supply cut short every ten minutes?"

"Of the fact you haven't gotten any in like what, eight-nine months?"

"Gross," George said looking away from the movie.

"What's gross?"

"You shagging anyone," George answered.

"Hey!" Lucy wasn't sure whether or not she should have been offended but it was George Weasley so it was better to be offended now and look sensitive then later when you finally got it and have looked like a idiot.

"I just mean I wouldn't want to hear about Meiri or Ginny shagging anyone either," George explained.

"I guess," Lucy said. Penny sipped the wine.

"This is good who brought it?"

"Remus."

"And he is?"

"Being questioned by Ted."

"Ted?" Penny blinked, "My Dad?" Dora wondered, "Edward Tonks? Not my mum?" Green flames erupted in the large fireplace at the mention of Andromeda Tonks. Out stepped the woman in question.

While the wizarding world would claim that she, more so than Lucy looked like her older sister Bellatrix LeStrange Lucy thought she was an exact replica of Araminta LeStrange née Black, Ophelia's mother. Andromeda, like Araminta had rounder eyes then most of the family, the pair of them had rounder faces too, and while they both, along with Bellatrix, had curly hair Bellatrix had always seemed older then what she really was. Her face had always had this heaviness to it that neither Andromeda nor Araminta had ever carried.

Even if the later had been born to die she never seemed quite as burdened as Bellatrix had been.

"What's not me?" Andromeda Tonks wondered as Ophelia flew from George's side to hug her aunt. Andromeda dropped a kiss to the crown Ophelia's head. She didn't spare a tense George a single glance as she walked over to the three young women.

"Questioning the bloke Lucy brought, Lupin."

"Remus? Remus Lupin?" Andromeda questioned, "You brought Remus Lupin?"

"I told you—"

"You said you were bringing a colleague from school."

"What does it matter?" Andromeda froze for a second.

"It matters." _She knows_. Lucy looked at Ophelia and George,

"Go upstairs, now." Her voice was hard. While George and Ophelia looked at Lucy oddly neither argued. When the teens were up stairs and the door had clicked shut Lucy turned to Andromeda.

"You know?"

"He came into St. Mungo's a few months ago, his leg was shattered. I saw his chart."

"He was like this back when you knew him, when he watched Dora."

"Like what?" Dora wondered.

"Go to your room," Andromeda instructed Dora, "And take Penny with you."

"Mum I'm an—"

"Now!" Dora huffed and dragged her feet, Penny pulled her up the stairs as she grumbled angrily about being an adult woman.

"I never would have let him near Dora had I know."

"He's a good man!"

"He's a werewolf," Andromeda hissed. Ted and Remus appeared in the archway between the kitchen and living room. Remus shrunk into himself.

"That doesn't matter!" Lucy defended him. She peeked at Remus who Ted was shaking his head head at.

"Of course it does." Her tone was final, but Lucy refused to let anyone speak about Remus like that. Even her own cousin, and especially right in front of him.

"Whatever you say Druella," Lucy sneered. Teds head shot up from his conversation with Remus.

"Excuse me?" Andromeda seethed.

"That anti werewolf attitude of yours is the same shit your mother used to spew. Remember? Werewolves are evil they're inhuman creatures," Lucy quoted her aunt.

"They are," Andromeda said lowly.

"The how come that man is one of the most amazing people I've ever met."

"Probably because you're not thinking with your head."

"Dromeda," Ted tried. He stayed next to Remus. Apparently he was fine with werewolves, not that Lucy was surprised, Dora had to get it from somewhere.

"Maybe not but I at least I wouldn't be thinking like Bella." There was a crack; Ted jumped towards Andromeda and Remus towards Lucy who held her cheek in her hand.

Remus cradled Lucy's face gently in his hands.

"I'm so sorry," he told her. She smiled up at him and gripped his hand tightly before turning to her cousin.

"Don't you dare compare me to her!"

"And why not? Ostracizing a good man simply because he's not himself twelve nights a year? Call him inhumane, a monster? That's the same shit your sisters do."

Andromeda sucked her teeth, "Get out. Get out of my home right now and don't come back."

"No," Remus's protested, he looked at Lucy, "I'll go, Andromeda is your cousin—"

"I'm not family with bigots," Lucy spat scathingly. Ted gripped his wife's upper arms as she lunged at her.

"Come on," Lucy threaded her fingers with Remus', "Ted."

"See you around Lucy. You too Remus."

"You will not Edward—neither will my daughter do you hear me Lucretia, stay away from my family!" Lucy only turned back as she threw opened the door.

"Ted?"

"Yeah kid?"

"Dumbledore doesn't want anyone to know," Lucy said gravely before slamming the door shut behind her and Remus. The pair of them stopped right outside the gate, or rather Remus stopped, his cold hands gripped at Lucy's forearms stopping her from storming away.

"Lucy go back inside. Tell Andromeda—"

"Remus if you make me go back inside I will curse my cousin," the ex-Seeker said firmly.

"She's your cousin."

"I lived half my life surrounded by people shitting on those who were different from us, whether they weren't as rich or their blood wasn't as pure, Remus I won't like my life with someone who looks down on—"

"Monsters! Lucy I am a monster." Lucy punched his shoulder.

"Ow."

"Listen to me Remus Lupin," Lucy told him firmly, her jaw was tight and her heartbeat was thundering, "You are not a monster and so help me if I hear anyone, yourself included call you that again I swear to Salazar himself I will lose it. Okay?"

Remus looked at her funnily, his eyes twinkled intensely as he stared down at her and he wore a half smiling on his face. The face that was getting closer to her.

_Friends, we're supposed to be friends_, Lucy thought, but as his breath warmed her face she couldn't find it in herself to care. Not even a little.

* * *

**December 26, 1993**

After their heated kiss outside of the Tonks home Remus had walked Lucy to her apartment. He had timidly kissed her on her stoop— that was miraculously clear of any dung —and told her he'd see her at her party the next evening.

Which was probably why, even after she awoke to see Kreature first thing in the morning— ten seventeen was very much first thing in the morning — she continued to smile.

"Good morning Kreature," Lucy greeted as the old house elf handed her a cup of coffee.

"Good morning Mistress," He crowed before turning into himself, "Master Regulus would be so disappointed, hanging around mudbloods and blood traitors—"

"You wouldn't happen to mean the Weasleys would you Kreature?" Lucy wondered. She knew he did but it was Christmas and Remus had kissed her twice the night before, so perhaps she could give the twisted creature leeway.

"No mistress."

"Wonderful. Now what have you decided to make for tonight's party Kreature?" Lucy asked as she pulled herself onto the counter. Her socked feet bumped against the cabinet handle.

"Kimchi jun, fish cake balls and LA galbi, Mistress, also cheese and pineapple sticks, and the fairy and cauldron cakes and speared sausages you like Mistress."

"You have everything you need? You went shopping?" Lucy asked.

"Yes Mistress."

"You know Kreature for the crocheted old racist of an elf you are, sometimes I wouldn't know what I'd do without you."

"Thank you Mistress," he bowed deeply. _Throw him a bone, it's Christmas. He'll never improve if you don't motivate him. He did make sure you never bled out._

"Reggie would be proud of you Kreature," Lucy said, the elf looked up at Lucy, his large eyes watering.

"Master Regulus would?" He croaked, his voice thick.

"Of course, you took care of me Kreature, always made sure I was fine after mother—you did good and if Regulus was around he'd say so himself."

"Thank you Mistress, thank you!" He sobbed.

"It's cool Kreature," Lucy said awkwardly at the crying elf. The last time she had tried to console him after she had told him to sit so she could check over a cut he had just cried harder. "I'm going to clear out my furniture."

Lucy turned and left the kitchen and walked into the living room. Lucy's living room wasn't the biggest but it also wasn't cluttered. She pushed her sofa back against the wall, the coffee table she out next to it, in between it and the cushioned chair.

She moved the end tables and lamp into her bedroom and marveled at the clean bathroom.

"Kreature?"

"Yes Mistress?" The elf appeared next to her.

"Did you clean the bathroom?"

"Yes Mistress. I also dusted, mopped and waxed the floors." Lucy nodded appricatingly. She hadn't even asked the elf to do any of those things!

"Great job Kreature!"

"Thank you Mistress." And then he was gone, back into the kitchen. Lucy moved her gramophone to the far corner of the room and set up a stack of both muggle and magical records that would play. While the songs were mainly Christmas themes Lucy couldn't help but throw in her Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel records into the mix.

Lucy had only just begun to debate if she should take her shower or wait so she wasn't sitting around in her dress doing nothing when a frantic banging came from her front door.

"LUCRETIA BLACK OPEN THIS DOOR!" Lucy had never thought to be scared of Penny Haywood, she was calm and kind but as she pounded on Lucy's front door the older witch monetarily wondered if she should have long ago been weary of the Hufflepuff.

Lucy opened the door and stumbled back as Penny barged in. Dora followed in after, she looked apologetic. Dora took a seat on the sofa.

"A werewolf!" Penny shouted, "You brought a werewolf around me!"

"Penny it isn't like that," Lucy defended, her good mood turning sour.

"Oh so Mrs. Tonks was wrong and the bloke you're shagging isn't a bloodthirsty creature?"

"No—" Both Penny And Kreature who had been listening sighed in relief, "I'm not shagging him, but he is a werewolf—" Kreature fainted as Penny declared all werewolves the same. Dora squatted, hovering over the couch as she decided on if she should check on Kreature. She probably should, but she didn't .

"They are not!"

"Yes they are!"

"Am I a terrible person? Is Barnaby or Murela? Are we terrible, irredeemable people who deserve to rot in Azkaban?"

"What does that—"

"Answer the question Penelope," Lucy demanded.

"No," Penny said strained.

"Then what makes Remus different from me? Or Barnaby or Murela?"

"He doesn't have control over himself, he's a danger!"

"No he's not, Penny, every month Snape brews him the wolfsbane potion, meaning every month he's able to remember who he is during the full moon." Penny didn't respond. "You liked the Remus you met, didn't you?"

Penny nodded hesitantly. "Then that doesn't have to change."

"That doesn't negate my fear Lucy. It doesn't change what happened to me."

"It doesn't have to, but knowing that, about the potion, about how he has never once hurt another person, that does have to mean something."

"Does it?" Penny collapsed onto the sofa next to Dora. Dora wrapped an arm around Penny as Lucy sat on Penny's other side.

"Of course it does. Penny if you're willing to be friends with Barnaby and Murela and myself, but not even tolerate being in the same room as Remus, being civil to him, well then I have to call you a hypocrite."

"Excuse me?"

"Murela tried to kill Mia and Rowan their first night in the castle, Barnaby sent kid after kid to the hospital wing in the illegal dueling club Flitwick pretends not to notice and I threatened to murder Ben at sixteen and yet at thirty three Remus has never once hurt someone, even when he wasn't on wolfsbane."

Penny sighed.

"I can't come to the party tonight." Lucy nodded understandingly.

"But you will still talk to me?" Lucy asked.

"Of course. You've still got to officiate mine and Dora's wedding, should that ever come around," Penny said looking at her girlfriend.

"You're the one who said we should date for five or so years before we get married!"

"So we are getting married?"

"Of course, Merlin woman!" Dora laughed. She leaned behind Penny,

"For the record even dad thinks mum is wrong, and he will be here to tell your boy toy sorry."

"Remus isn't my boy toy." Lucy blushed.

"So you weren't snogging him outside my mums house last night?"

"Boy toy only applied if we've shagged," Lucy started.

"You plan on shagging him?" Dora asked curiously.

"Have you seen him? The first chance I get."

"Slut," Dora cackled.

"You're the one living with your unmarried partner having premarital sex Dora, if anyone is a slut it's the two of you."

"Excuse me," Penny laughed, "I am a classy whore, slut is a word for cheap slags." Lucy sighed with a laugh,

"I should probably check on Kreature shouldn't I?"

"He is your elf."

"Alright, alright, alright, Penny you do change your mind the Weird Sisters will be here."

"What?"

"Yeah Kirley, Heathcote and Myron promised to show up after they heard about last year's debacle."

"You call it a debacle but I call it art!" Dora pouted.

"Dora you got so drunk and transformed into the Minister and mooned that Dawlish bloke who told us we were being too loud," Lucy stressed. The whole thing had looked even odder because last year Dora had worn a spaghetti strap dress.

"That's cause Dawlish is a dick," Dora affirmed.

Yes he is.

…

The first person Lucy answered the door for was Merwyn Fenwick and Michelle and their beautiful baby boy Oscar Orlando.

"He is darling," Lucy cooed as Michelle passed the giggling boy to her. He fingered the necklace Remus had given her.

"He just started sleeping through the night," Michelle said, "But he's just like his father."

"Oh?" Lucy wondered.

"He wakes up at the crack ass of dawn." Lucy snorted and bounced the baby in her arms. "Who's already training to be a Quidditch player? You are—yes you are," Lucy cooed. The baby boy flashed Lucy a gummy smile that made her heart melt.

"You're good with him," Merwyn said. "Going to have one of your own?"

"With who?" Lucy chuckled, Remus' face flashed in her mind only for Lucy to internally shake her head. How could she think about having a child with Remus when she didn't even know where the two of them stood? Besides who even said she would be a good mother, after a childhood under her own mothers thumb the thought of maybe, perhaps, ever putting a child in the same situation sickened her.

"You'll find a bloke," Merwyn said as Lucy passed Oscar to Michelle.

"Yeah," Lucy nodded.

"You will." Another knock.

"I'm going to go get that, feel free to eat anything in the kitchen," Lucy told them. She threw open the door and smiled at her old school friends. Barnaby Lee, Murela Snyde, Rowan, Ben, Talbot Winter surprisingly and—

"Andre!" Lucy pushed past Barnaby and wrapped her arms tightly around the brown boy. "When did you get back to the country?" She asked him.

"Last night. I went over to Talbots and we ran into Barnaby—"

"And I invited them. Hope that's okay Lucy," he blushed.

"Course it is Barnaby, the more friends the merrier." Lucy led them inside, her hand firmly pressed against Andres back. The last time she had seen him had been before Ron's first year, right after he had graduated.

"So how's Milan?" She asked the fashion designer.

"Good, amazing—see this?" Andre pinched his suits dark blue velvet coat.

"Seeing as I have eyes yes," Lucy said fondly.

"I made it. My boss told me to put together and outfit for a celebrity and you'll never guess who liked it enough to wear it," Andre told her.

"No I probably won't so who wore it?"

"The new singer for the Hobgoblins—Zeek Dartmouth."

"Holy shit that's a big deal!" Lucy gasped. A knock came from the door and instead of Lucy turning away from Andre telling her all about tailoring Zeek Dartmouth, Barnaby answered the door. He welcomed in Birch, Gadrel and the rest of the Tornadoes and their dates, including the reserve Seeker Ethel who had been filling in for Lucy since her suspension and her boyfriend.

Gadrel made a b-line for Muerla, who according to Penny's gossip had been staying at his flat three times a week. Murela claimed it was casual but as Lucy looked at the two and Murela smiled tenderly at the chaser she knew it wasn't. Murela liked him.

Birch caught Lucy's eye as she looked up from away from the happy not couple and waved her over.

"I'll be back, my Captain want to see me."

"Sure thing, I should go make sure Talbot isn't seducing your teammates," Andre clapped her on the shoulder.

"Jealous?"

"Please if I were jealous I would date ugly men." And with that Andre was gone from her side and making his way to the kitchen where Talbot argued with Jeffords over flying.

"Captain," Lucy smiled.

"Lucy, I'm technically not your Captain," Birch said.

"Birch we'll both be grey and a hundred years old and I'll still be calling you Captain," Lucy told him. Birch smiled softly.

"We miss you on the field," Birch told her, "Ethel's good but—"

"She's no Black Lighting?" Lucy snorted. Garry Harbinger, a sports writer for the Prophet, had been the one to give her that ridiculous nickname after one of her first games. Lucy had caught the snitch in ten minutes thus the long necked reported had started calling her Black Lighting.

_It's a dumb fucking name_, in Lucy's opinion.

"No, she's also boring and doesn't train nearly as hard as you."

"Birch you used to call me boring, remember?" Birch grunted. "You just think anyone who doesn't talk about their garden or Quidditch as much as you is boring." Birch rolled his dark eyes.

"Alright I'm done with'ya, you're dismissed," he muttered before stalking towards Merwyn and Michelle who watched over Barnaby as he held Oscar.

Lucy picked up a cheese and pineapple stick when more people knock. She didn't bother to put it down before answering door.

On her porch stood the half Weird Sisters who had asked to come. Kirley, Heathcote and Myron each wore expensive suits and dark eye makeup, Gideon Crumb wore a kilt and Herman who played the lute wore not only the ugliest Christmas sweater Lucy had ever seen but the tightest pants too.

"Hey!" Lucy smiled.

"Merry Christmas Black," Heathcote greeted. He had been the one Lucy stayed in touch with the most, and the one who had asked to show up. Lucy stepped aside for each of them to enter. Each of the other band members jollily greeted the witch as they passed.

"Merry Christmas Heath, Kirley, Gideon, Myron." Myron, the lead singer was the last to enter.

"You look good Black," he smirked, his eyes running up and down the dark evening dress she had on.

"Thanks Myron," Lucy thanked unenthusiastically. She kept the door open as she saw a group of familiar faces coming down the block.

"Maybe you and me—"

"No going to happen Myron," Lucy shook her head cutting off his train of thought. The singer deflated but did not look dejected.

"Tonight?"

"Ever. You're not my type." While Lucy wasn't quite sure what her type was she was sure that pretty-boy front man Myron was not it. Even if it was for a fling.

"Well if you change your mind," Myron said openly as Lucy's fellow Professors walked up her steps.

Sinestra, who had her arm linked with Burbage, who looked excited, didn't look thrilled. Pomfrey and Sprout who giggling as Remus and Flitwick trailed behind them, chatting but what drew Lucy's attention was the fact that Professor McGonagall and a woman Lucy had never seen before lead the group of Professors.

"Professor McGonagall?" Lucy blinked, to surprised at the sight of the Transfiguration Professors to see the dazzled look on Remus' face as he looked up at her.

"Ms. Black," Professor McGonagall greeted, "I would like you to meet my wife, Winifred, Winnie this is the Ms. Black I've told you about." Lucy took the strange woman's hand, Winifred McGonagall's withered one clasped over hers.

"Merry Christmas," the woman said.

"Merry Christmas to you Mrs. McGonagall."

"Call me Winnie dear," she said pinching Lucy's cheek fondly. Professor McGonagall cleared her throat. She sucked in a breath and set back her shoulder.

"I—you're a better women than I've ever given you credit for Ms. Black. I apologize," Professor McGonagall said. Lucy felt shock run threw her.

Apparently Christmas Miracles do come true!

Lucy blinked, "It's alright Professor," Lucy told her, "You had your reasons."

"Thank you. Now may we come in?" The Transfiguration Professor wondered. Lucy let out a laugh,

"Of course, come in, come in," she ushered. Professor Sprout wrapped Lucy in a tight hug and Pomfrey bopped her nose with well wishings. Sinestra begrudgingly gritted out Merry Christmas as Burbage thanked Lucy for the invasion and asked Lucy where he had gotten her dress.

"Twilfitt and Tatting's," Lucy answered palming the black silk.

Flitwick as he entered congratulated Lucy on the beautifully placed decorations on both the outside and inside of the apartment.

Remus stood in front of her, his palms pressed awkwardly against his thighs as his fingers twitched towards Lucy.

"Merry Christmas," she said as she sat the door. Remus breathed deeply,

"Merry Christmas," he murdered back. Lucy, not checking to see if anyone was watching pecked his lips. Remus' hands moved from his tighs to her hips.

"I hope that was okay," she said quietly.

"It was—is. Um, we can talk later," Remus said. "After the party or—Er after New Years if you'd like?" Lucy almost asked why not tomorrow when she remembered, the full moon was three days away.

He looked less sickly then he had before November's full moon.

"The party will probably end pretty late, if after New Years is good for you I can wait." Remus smiled gently.

"Good. Then we'll talk after New Years." He pocketed his hands.

Lucy, due to the extra three inches her stilettos added, wrapped her arm just under Remus' shoulders.

"Come on I want you to meet my team."

"I mean if you want me too…" Remus trailed off snickering.

"So help me Merlin Lupin if you sass me I'll—"

"What?" Remus questioned daringly, "You'll what?"

"Drag you to my bathroom and see what was so interesting that both Haul and Jeffords needed to go in their for," Lucy flirted.

"I mean if you really need help figuring that out what kind of friend would I be if I denied you help?" Remus quipped. Lucy, though she hadn't showed it, felt her soul freeze.

_Friends. We're friends and that's all he wanted to be. But he said the kiss was alright, he hasn't turned tail and run— ha! Turned tail! —but he was admit nothing could happen! But he did say he wanted to talk._

"Merwyn! Birch!" Lucy called over, no longer looking at the werewolf, "I want you two to meet someone!"

* * *

**a/n: REMEBER TO LEAVE REVIEWS!**


	7. January 1994 - chapter seven

**January 1, 1994**

Despite only just having gotten over her hangover from the previous nights celebrations Lucy showed up outside Remus Lupin's office at a quarter to eleven like they had planned. In one hand was her broom, in the other was a present she had forgotten to give to him between the debacle that had been Christmas Eve at her cousins and the party she had hosted the following day.

Lucy raised the hand curled around her broom to knock on the door only for Remus to open it before her knuckles ever met wood.

"Lucy!" He greeted warmly. He looked both ravishing and exhausted at the same time. His hair stuck up on the side of his head, and there were puffy bags under his eyes and the elastic of his underwear— Boxers, Lucy mused, He's definitely a boxers sort of man —peeked up over his sweater which had accidentally been tucked into the undergarment. "Happy New Years!"

"Happy New Years Remus," Lucy said, she presented his gift, "And a Merry belated Christmas." Remus looked down at the square shaped parcel.

"Lucy you know you didn't have to get me anything," Remus told her. She smirked, her lips quirked up flashing the corner of one of her canines at him.

"Is that your way of telling me you didn't get me anything?" She joked. Remus flushed a pretty pink that made Lucy feel giddy.

"I—well I didn't realize we were doing gifts," he said. Merlin he's adorable like this. I love it when he's embarrassed, she thought happily. How could anyone ever call this man a monster?

"It's cool that just means you'll have to get me an extra special birthday gift," she told him, handing over the terribly wrapped present. Even with the help of magic Lucy couldn't seem to nicely wrap gifts. Mrs. Weasley had always told her It doesn't matter what the outside looks like as long as put thought into the gift underneath, and while the sentiment was nice, Lucy who had been brought up on Presentation— perception —means everything couldn't help but feel embarrassed as Remus marveled at the still wrapped present.

"Sorry about the wrapping, I know it—"

"It's perfect?" Remus quipped, cutting her off. "It's better than anything I could have managed." He lead Lucy into the room as he started to tear at the paper.

"Really?"

"Course, usually if it don't come in it's own box I just plop it in bag—Lucy," he gasped as he marveled at his gift. It was a copy of William Shakespeare's First Folio, a book that had been put together shortly after the authors death, it was comprised of his plays. Out of the seven hundred that had been originally printed back then less then two hundred still remained and while it had been expensive in the muggle world the hefty price it had been hadn't even made a small ding in the family fortune.

"Lucy," he turned around, "This is—I can't—it's too much." The wrapping paper was still around the book, Lucy noticed Remus was careful to not touch the work.

"Honestly Remus it's cool."

"Cool? Lucy this must've coast a—a," Remus blinked as he tried to think of something other then the saying An arm and a leg.

"A whole dragons liver?" She offered smartly.

"Yes!"

"Well it didn't," Lucy said. Money was still deposited in the family Vaults do to the income of businesses her family had long ago partnered with, along with profits from well made investments and royalties from inventions and potions her ancestors had patented, and no matter how much Lucy spent twice as much always rolled in at the end of the month.

"Still I can't accept this," Remus told her.

"Of course you can, it's easy." Remus shot her a dry, but still grateful look.

"I meant I can't take something that was so expensive, especially when I got you nothing." Lucy understood where he came from, his pride wouldn't allow him to accept such a gift when he would never have been able to spend even an eighth of its worth as a present in return. Bill had been the same way when, in their first year, she'd given him new broom.

"_You can't have of gotten me this," an eleven year old Bill Weasley said. His parents and siblings looked on with large eyes as they peered at the newest racing broom on the market. His younger brother Charlie gaped open mouthed at the broom. According to Bill the only two things the boy loved was dragons and Quidditch. Lucy made note that when he got to Hogwarts she'd get him a broom too._

_"Why not? Do you not like it?" Lucy wondered._

_"No—I do, really more than anything, it's just, all I got you was a picture," Bill pointed out. Lucy held the picture of the two of them against her chest protectively; both Lucy and Bill were asleep on one of the greenhouse benches, covered in mud. Bills robes were under Lucy's head while his was on her shoulder. Professor Sprout had taken it after they had helped her repot plants, only to then run around the green house for the next hour chasing after a gnome that had somehow gotten in._

_"And I love the picture, more than anything," Lucy told him. A crease formed between her brows. She didn't understand why Bill sounded as if the picture was nothing. It was perfect because like the other girls in her dorm Lucy finally had a picture to put next to her bed frame. To show she wasn't alone._

_"The broom must've cost a fortune," Bill explained, "And all I got you was a second hand frame and a picture that didn't cost anything."_

_"I don't care about the money Bill cause to me this picture is worth more than any broom!" Lucy exclaimed. Bill looked skeptical. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley who had both been listening in jumped up when both Ronald and Ginny, and Meriri who started immediately after, started crying._

_"How can a picture be worth more than a broom?" Lucy pressed her lips together and wondered how she could explain what she felt to Bill._

_"Well," she started slowly, "You know how people pick on me because of my family, how cause no one writes me so they say no one loves me?" Bill nodded, while the children from the other houses bullied Lucy because her family was evil the older Slytherins who had lost loved ones to You-Know-Who picked on her saying how even she was to evil to love. "Well this picture proves them wrong doesn't it? It shows them that I do have a brother who cares about me." Bill beamed._

_"You called me your brother," he said softly. Lucy pinkened._

_"You're the one that said we could be a family," she murmured embarrassed. Bill leaned in and wrapped her in a warm hug. Lucy could feel emotion swell up under her lungs, suffocating her in a good way she still wasn't yet used too._

_"I know I did. You're the best sister Lucy."_

_"And you're the best brother Bill."_

The sentiment was stupid because while some people like Mrs. Weasley showed affection by making fudge and knitting sweaters Lucy bought people stuff.

"Remus the money's nothing okay? It might be to you but to me it's not, so really it's no big deal."

"Of course it is Lucy, how can I ever get you anything that'll ever measure up?" Remus resorted. He placed the book and the wrapping paper gently on the side of his desk.

"You could kiss me." The words were out of Lucy's mouth before she could think them through. Remus paused and looked at her.

"I can't give you what you want," Remus said in response. All I want is you, Lucy thought.

"And what do you think I want?" She wondered. She took a step closer to him, and then another and then a third until she was only a step away. Lucy dragged her hand along the desk until it was next to Remus'.

"Someone to come home too, to raise a few kids with and live a long happy life with," he answered her. Lucy shook her head.

"Kids, they arent in my plan," Lucy told him. Her stomach twisted painfully— just like it had when Merwyn brought it up —at the thought of perhaps ever putting her hypothetical child through the trauma she had gone through

"Then someone to come home to," Remus amended.

"That would be nice," Lucy hummed. Her grey eyes met his, they were clouded in lust and angst and resignment. "But more than that," her fingers danced up Remus' hand, up his arm, she stepped closer, "I want you. However you'll have me."

They were chest to chest. Lucy had on hand on his shoulder and another on his ribs; remus had both hands on her waist.

"Doesn't the age difference bother you?"

"No. You?"

"It makes me feel like I'm taking advantage of you," Remus told her. Their breathing synced up.

"How can you take advantage of me when I'm the one pursuing you? Asking for you to kiss me." Practically begging. Lucy looked up at him through her lashes.

"And you're sure of this? You want me, despite my age, my nonexistent vault, my condition?"

"I want you in spite of it," Lucy told him, "I want you because you make me laugh and you make me feel safe enough to cry, you make me feel like I'm my own person." She smiled. "And the fact you're fit doesn't hurt either you know."

Remus chuckled. When his laughter stop he peered at Lucy and pulled her more firmly to his chest.

"So just one kiss?" He mused. Lucy rose up on her toes,

"Maybe a few," she murmured against his lips.

Remus' lips fit against hers like a long lost puzzle piece. The kiss was firm, but his lips were soft, though she could feel a cut on his top lip against her own. And though there was no outwards explosion, no fireworks or angels singing Lucy felt her stomach catch her hammering heart and every part of her body warm from the inside out.

Lucy's fingers stretched to his hair, the soft light brown felt thin and airy hair between her fingers. Almost like a snitches wing. Remus' fingernails bit into her shirt as Lucy's tongue swiped across his bottom lip.

Lucy felt her breath hitch as Remus nipped at her bottom lip, only to take in between his own lips and suck on it pleasurably. Lucy opened her own mouth and slowly, testing the waters, Remus' tongue slithered in.

There was no fight for dominance like authors wrote about in Mrs. Weasleys love novels, just a dance. Lucy tugged lightly at Remus' hair and the werewolf pushed her against the edge of his desk, their lips never disconnecting.

And when they did, when Remus did pull his lips away from Lucy's it was so he could drag his teeth across her jaw and down her neck, pulling at bits of skin until her came across her pulse. There his arms circled her waist; Lucy, with her eyes closed, was flushed against Remus, panting as he kissed her neck.

Remus pulled away when Lucy moaned. It was a soft moan, the start of a symphony of noses. They both breathed heavily against the other.

His hands left her waist to cup her face, and hers his shoulders to rest against his erratic heart.

"Merlin Lupin, you've been holding out on me," Lucy said smartly. Her face was red and her pupils had been blown out wide.

"I guess that means you'll just have to come back for more," he smirked.

"I come back for the conversation, this is just a really nice bonus."

"Well then," Remus told her, stepping away, he grabbed the book behind her. "I'm going to start in on this if you want to join me by the fire."

"I'd love to but I should probably go say hello to the kids," Lucy told him. Remus leaned in and pecked her lips.

"Don't kill the Weasley twins," he told her. Her eyes narrowed.

"Why would I kill them?" She asked sharply. Remus smiled coyly.

"You'll see."

* * *

**January 2, 1994**

"Ms. Black?" Professor McGonagall caught up to Lucy as the younger witch walked towards the Hufflepuff common room.

"Hey Professor! How was your New Year's-Sorry I didn't see you last night I- err -went to bed early," Lucy tried to swallow her blush as she half lied to the Deputy Headmistress because she had gone to bed early the prior night; only it hadn't been her own bed. It had been Remus', both Lucy and the werewolf took turns reading passages from the First Folio between intense snogging sessions.

Professor McGonagall peered at her through the corner of her eye, disbelieving, but said nothing.

"That's quite alright Ms. Black, though we do have to speak about something important." Lucy paused midstep.

"Is everything okay Professor?" Mcgonagall turned and looked at the ex-Seeker.

"Mr. Potter got a broom over break, a firebolt. There was no note." Lucy felt an icy hand grip her lungs and squeeze.

"And you think Si-my-him, you think he sent Harry Potter a broom?"

"I do. I have Professor Flitwick going over the broom."

"Thank you for informing me," Lucy said with a nod and furrowed brow.

"That's not all Ms. Black. As the Headmaster pointed out, a broom like that costs money," Professor McGonagall said slowly. Lucy felt hot fury rise in her throat.

"And you think I gave him the money?" Lucy's jaw tightened.

"No, of course not, but the Headmaster and I are curious to where he could have gotten the money." Lucy nodded, her blood still hot with indignation.

"Not the family vault," Lucy told her, "The moment I turned seventeen I wrote to the goblins, as Head of House I put specific instructions on who is and isn't allowed access. He isn't."

"Any idea where he could have gotten the money?" Lucy bit her lip.

_Cissy would never,_ Lucy thought, _Lucius hates him and Cissy still thinks he's a stain upon the family name. Andy wouldn't either so who would give him hundreds of thousands of galleons so he could elaborately murder Harry Potter?_

"My samchon, my Uncle Alphard," Lucy told the older witch as she remembered the large tapestry in her childhood home, "Was my mother's younger brother. He was burned off the family tapestry, disowned, shortly after he his death. My mother thought Alphard willing Sirius-" Lucy hissed the name, "His estate was the equivalence of being a blood traitor."

Professor McGonagall nodded. "Thank you Ms. Black."

* * *

**January 3, 1994**

Though she had been part of the staff, technically Lucy Black was not a Professor she was a flying instructor and Quidditch coach meaning she didn't have tests to grade or papers to correct, which was why, after classes on the first day of term when seventh years Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint, and the Ravenclaw Chaser Whitney Jackson and the Hufflepuff Beater Ryan Lockley all entered her office Lucy, with her feet up on her desk, to amuse herself had been spinning several paper swans she had made above her head in a swirling, never ending vortex.

"Uh, Madam Lucy?" Whitney Jackson questioned from the mouth of the door, only her head poking in.

Lucy looked at the open door and grinned at the girl. "Miss. Jackson! Are misters Wood, Flint and Lockley with you?"

"Right here Madam!" Oliver Wood said, he leaned over Whitney Jackson and stuck his head through the door. Whitney elbowed the Scottish Boy in the ribs,

"Two steps back Wood," the young girl growled threateningly, "Now." While Lucy had heard about the young girls temper the flying instructor was sure Oliver had witnessed it first hand because without any hesitation the boy had thrown himself back into— if the loud Oomph was any indication —Marcus Flint.

"—Off me Wood!" Flint growled out from behind the door.

Teenagers, Lucy mused. "Alright how about you all just come in and take a seat." The four entered the room. Whitney took one corner stool while Lockley took the other leaving both Wood and Flint to sit next to each other, their shoulders brushed against one another and their knees knocked into each other.

"Did we do something wrong Madam?" Wood wondered as he fidgeted on his stool, his hands curled around the end of his sweater.

"No actually, the opposite," Lucy pulled out four gel pens, dark blue, purple, red and orange, and four sheets of parchment with names already written on them from her top drawer. "I've called you all here because I'd like to know what you all plan to do after school."

"Work in the Department of Mysteries," Whitney Jackson said without any hesitation. She held her head up proudly.

"Not play Quidditch?" Lucy wondered. Whitney shook her head.

"Nah, Quidditch is fun and all, and I love it but the Department of Mysteries ma'am," Miss. Jackson stressed. Lucy laughed, six years before Lucy herself had said the exact opposite.

"_Not the Ministry?" Mr. Weasley asked over breakfast. Five year old Ginny sat on one of Lucy's knees and munched on the sausage Lucy has cut up for her. Bill sat next to her with Ron on his other side, struggling to reach for the syrup. Meiri sat across from Ron, next to Mia, the six year old redhead accidently knocked over her orange juice into the fourteen year old girls lap._

_"Nah," Lucy shook her head as Mia assured a tear eyes Meiri everything was okay, "The Ministry seems cool and all but Quidditch!" Ginny perked up,_

_"Quidd-it!" The young girl cheered through a mouthful of food._

"Well then if you're sure you can leave."

"Have a nice night Professor," Whitney waved, she smiled at Lockley and glared at Wood before rushing out of the room. Flint didn't bother to move over a seat.

"And what about you boys, do you all want to play Quidditch?"

"Yes!" Lockley And Wood said simultaneously. Lucy raised a brow at Marcus Flint.

"Mr. Flint?"

"My father wants me to run the family business," Flint said. Lucy knew the Flints ran the imports and exports of the wizarding world; it had been her family who had given them money to start the business up eight centuries ago.

"I'm not asking what your father wants you to do Mr. Flint, I'm asking if you want to play Quidditch," told Lucy.

"Yes." Lucy nodded.

"Then I'm sure a letter from me explaining how good you are on a broom will help persuade him," Lucy told Flint. Both pureblood knew that it wasn't the letter that would persuade Sir Flint but rather the fact that she, Lady Black has noticed his sons talent.

"Thank you. Now here each of you take one of these," Lucy handed each boy a paper and pen. "Now each of those are a list of teams looking for talent, either on their reserves or their first line and I want you to mark down four teams you can see yourself playing on."

"Why?" Asked Lockley.

"So I can have those teams scouts at your next game."

"Scouts?" Wood echoed. Lucy nodded, the boy looked like he would faint at any moment.

"That is what I said Mr. Wood."

"You think we're good enough to play professionally?"

"Of course I do Mr. Wood, That is why I called you here," Lucy teased the dazed boy.

"I would like to say the Tornades scout, Tim West, will be coming to a game too because half of our— their —reserves have either come down with dragon pox, gotten pregnant or— what did Sean do—right or quite to travel the world in search of some kind of stone."

"Someone quite because they wanted to find a nice rock?" Marcus Flint blinked. Lucy nodded remembering Birch's last letter. Birch had called Fargus Sean a Crackpot; I mean honestly Black who quits their career to go looking for a grain of truth from a children's book?

"Apparently he's looking for some type of magical stone. Either way Timmy will be visiting for each of your games." Each of the boys nodded and carefully selected four teams before they handed Lucy back the pens and parchment.

"The Wasps Mr. Flint?" Lucy laughed, it was no secret that, after a match the Tornadoes had won, Lucy and her teammates had once gotten into a brawl with the Wasps after their Chaser Alexander Goodvik sucker punched Jeffords. "How you hurt me so."

Marcus Flint went red.

"It's cool," she waved the blushing boy off, "I'll send the letters out tonight—though are you sure Mr. Lockley? The Cannons?"

"They're my grandfather's favorite ma'am," the Hufflepuff answered. Lucy nodded.

"Alright then, all of you, have a nice evening."

"You too Madam, and thank you!" Lockley said as he walked out of the room. Flint whispered something to Wood who nodded,

"Thanks Madam, this means a bunch!" Wood told Lucy, he stuck his hand out and shook hers gratefully.

"It's no trouble Mr. Wood."

Just like the time the captains had meet Marcus Flint had been the last to leave.

"Thanks, for saying you'll write my father. And the opportunity." Marcus Flint was stiff with insecurity. Lucy smiled at the boy,

"Like I said Mr. Flint, it's no trouble."

* * *

**January 5, 1994**

"I want to teach you how to produce a patronus," Remus had said one afternoon. It had come out of nowhere, a random exclamation in a sea of small talk.

"I'm sorry you want to do what?" Lucy looked at Remus, the pair of them were in the staff room, Burbage, who sat across the room grading papers, looked ready to pull her own hair out as she scribbled away on some poor students essay. She muttered under her breath, 'Holy fucking ignorant shit why did I become a Professor?'

Sinestra, who sat across from her did not console her, instead she looked down blankly at her own stack of papers; 'How the fuck are these idiots N.E.W.T students? They're so dumb.' For a moment Lucy wondered if the Astronomy Professor would burst into frustrated tears.

"I want to teach you how to produce a patronus," Remus repeated. Lucy started to laugh only to quickly realize her— Lucy wasn't quite sure what they were, just that they had made out twice more since the first of the new year —whatever was serious.

"Oh, you're not kidding."

"Why would I be kidding? McGonagall says a pair of sixth years were nearly attacked and after what happened to you and Harry there seems that the Dementors will continue to refuse to listen to the Headmaster about not coming onto the ground and—uh, I don't want you to be a sitting duck the next time your on the pitch or walking from Hagrids."

"That's sweet," Lucy said tenderly, "But I can't produce a patronus."

"Of course you can," Remus told her firmly, "I'm teaching Harry and he can already produce a few whisps and I'm sure if he can you can too." Lucy grabbed Remus' hand from across the table and squeezed. Lucy noticed that both Burbage and Sinestra had paused from rethinking their careers to listen in like nosy busybodys.

"I'm touched you think that I can, I am, but I can't, and it's not for lack of trying or anything, I assure you. I'm just someone who can't." Remus frowned and turned his hand over so their palms were touching, his fingers traced her ulnar artery.

"I don't believe that," he told her. He rose from his chair, Lucy followed suit after a pointed look and like Remus she took out her wand. He paused, his eyes closed and he breathed deeply. Burbage and Sinestra no longer seemed to try and hide their curiosity and had turned in their seats to look.

"Expecto Patronum!" Remus voice was firm when a silvery figure— a wolf —sprouted from his wand.

"Merlin!" Lucy gasped in amazement. She could remember both other times she had seen a patronus, the first having been when her classmates preformed the spell, Bills patronus was a black bear; the second time had been when Dora learned to produce one for her aurora training, hers had been a jack rabbit but Remus' wolf captured Lucy's attention more then either Bills or Dora's ever had. Because as the wolf landed on the stone floor there was no jealousy at his ability just awement.

Remus opened his eyes as the wolf jumped upon the table and then kept into the air, circling above Lucy before it traveled back down to rest at her feet before fading from existence.

"You try," Remus told her with a grin.

"Why? Following that act would be like Percy following the Weird Sisters," Lucy said slyly trying to wiggle her way out of making a fool of herself. Something Remus seemed intent on seeing.

"While I can't attest to Mr. Weasley's singing I can attest to your magical ability, come on."

"Yeah!" Burbage cheered happily, "Come on!" Sinestras' "Come on," seemed much more mocking then Burbages.

"Alright," Lucy said, "Seeing as I'm not going to get out of this." She positioned her wand.

"Think of the happiest memory you have—"

Lucy thought. She thought of Regulus teaching her to fly, she thought of Bill wrapping her in his arms at only eleven years old, promising to be her new family. She thought of Mr. and Mrs. Weasley welcoming her into their home and how giddy she felt the first time someone asked if she was Lucy Black the girl who had helped save the school and close the Vaults, not Lucy Black Sirius Black's sister.

"—and feel that memory. I vision it as a real corporal thing." Remus instructed. And she did. She shut her eyes just had Remus had and breathed deeply through her nose.

"Expecto Patronum!" But as she envisioned each of those memories she also remembered being nine and hearing her brother was dead. She remembered exactly why Bill had had to promise her that they could be a family. Why his parents had to welcome her into their home and why she had felt so giddy when she was so happy to be asked if she had risked her life for some insane adventure.

She opened her eyes to Sinestra biting back a smile.

_Wipe that smile off her face!_ A voice crowed. Lucy clutched her wand and turned to Remus as Burbage chided her broom cupboard buddy to be nice.

"I told you Remus I can't do it."

"That was your first try," Remus said.

"More like hundredth. It's fine really, my Defense Professor in my seventh year said it was natural for some children to be unable to produce a patronus." Of course her Professor had been talking about children of and or related to Death Eaters but still that statement decently applied to her.

"Well I'm your Defense Professor now—"

"I'm not a seventh year anymore Remus," Lucy chuckled.

"No matter what your fantasies say otherwise," Sinestra muttered loud enough for both Remus and Lucy to go red.

"W-Wh-What I-I-I meant was, I'm the Defense Professor now and I say you'll be casting some form of a patronus by June." Remus stammered.

"Whatever you say Professor," Lucy smirked. Remus' ears burned.

"Merlin," Sinestra yakked disgusted.

* * *

**January 6, 1993**

Lucy, while Remus chattered to Professor McGonagall and Sinestra, listened to Professor Sprout talk about how her Snargaluff, one of the many magical plants that tended to try to kill those around it, had nearly done in Professor Flitwick— who had been tucked away in the Hospital Wing, still knocked out —when he'd gone to speak with her when Penny and Dora's Spectacled owl Ramon nearly landed in her cereal.

The owl hooted loudly drawing most of the staff's attention to him.

"Do you always have to do that?" Lucy scolded the owl as she took the letter attached to his leg. Ramon hooted just as loud in response, his eyes shined indignantly. Too much of Dora's personality had rubbed off on the chocolate feathered owl.

The owl snapped up a marshmallow Quaffle from Lucy's bowl before taking off in the sky.

"Bloody chicken," Lucy grumbled as she opened the letter.

Wotcher Luce!

Pens hoping you and that bloke of yours can stop by Hogs Head around eight! She knows you like him and wants to try to get over her fear, she says it's a childish fear and as an adult woman she needs to get over it. I mean it's not and she really should but still… anyway hope to see you two at eight!

Dora

Next to Dora's name was a crudely drawn happy face that made Lucy crack a smile.

"Whos it from deary?" Sprout wondered as she forked more eggs onto her plate.

"Dora," Lucy told her.

"Oh well I hope everything's okay," Sprout said. Lucy knew that while her cousin had caused heaps of trouble for her Head of House, whether it be due to the Vaults or a prank the curly haired Herbologist had just simply adored the colorful twenty year old.

"Uh—yeah everything's cool," Lucy put the letter in her robes breast pocket, and eyed Remus, who had gone back to his conversation with the two lesbians.

I'll talk to him at lunch.

…

Later that night, despite the fact that it had been less talking and more helping Remus through a panic attack during their lunch break, Lucy and Remus Lupin sat in one of the booths at Hogs Head waiting for the two twenty year old lesbians to walk through the door.

Lucy placed her hand over Remus', his bouncing leg jostled hers. "Relax," she smiled easily, "Everything'll be okay."

"You say that now," Remus scoffed.

"Yeah, and when we're heading back up to the castle I'll be saying I told you so," Lucy said. Her thumb ran along a scar that extended across the back of his hand.

"You've already lost Andromeda over me, I don't want you to have to lose a friend too," Remus told her, his eyes fluttering to the door anxiously.

"One, I didn't lose Andy," Lucy pointed out, "She's just being over dramatic, honestly Remus, come six months time she'll be writing me again asking me to give Ophelia the talk— Merlin knows Dora and Ted already called not it. Two, Penny and I spoke Christmas day, and three, Penny wants to get over her fear, she knows it's stupid."

"And what if she can't? What if Andromeda doesn't—her reaction wasn't over dramatic Lucy, it was perfectly normal." Lucy's brows knitted together.

Normal? "Do people usually freak out like that when they find out?" Lucy felt a hot ball of anger build in her throat.

"Thinking twice about being seen in public with me?" Remus somewhat snapped dryly.

"No you dick," Lucy hissed hurt that he would even suggest that, "But I am thinking about having you write down the names of anyone who has ever reacted like Andy."

"Why?"

"So I can hex them." Remus' lips twitched and he leaned down to press them against Lucy's, who was glaring at an empty space on the table when a feminine cough made both Hogwarts staff members look up.

Like usual Dora Tonks was sporting short pink hair and Penny, who stood next to her girlfriend, tightly clinging to the metamorphmagus hand, wore her blonde hair in twin braids.

Both Remus and Lucy stood up.

"Wotcher Remus!" Dora stuck out her empty hand.

"Tonks," the older man greeted, shaking it. "It's good to see you again. I'm sorry I spoiled your Christmas."

"You didn't spoil anything, mum just blew her top like usual. I mean you should have seen her when I said I wanted to be an Aurora," Dora waved off. Lucy smiled thankfully at her cousin who winked welcomingly. She pulled her hand to her side and stepped back, pushing Penny, who wore a an anxious smile similar to Remus' forward.

"Remus," Penny nodded.

"Mrs. Haysworth," Remus said respectfully. He had said it softly, the same way one would greet a scared animal.

"Penny," the blonde insisted. "Please call me Penny." She then sat across from Remus and Lucy, Dora next to her on the outside of the booth.

"I know I shouldn't be scared of you," Penny started, "Lucy told me how you take a potion every month and how you've never hurt anyone—" Lucy threaded her fingers through Remus' under the table, "—And I want to overcome it, I do, I liked you before I knew and I wouldn't be fair if I didn't afterwords. I just—it's hard."

"I understand," Remus told her, "You're handling this much better than some people twice you age do and I want to thank you."

You shouldn't have to, Lucy thought, Basic human decency shouldn't be a courtesy you're afforded but a right you deserve. Lucy of course didn't say that.

"I think maybe you should know why I'm scared," Penny started hesitantly.

"I assume it's because of horror stories you grew up hearing," Remus said. Penny shook her head. Dora's unoccupied hand moved from the table to Penny's knee.

"When I was a kid," Penny's eyes watered and her breathing grew heavy, "When I was thirteen, right before my third year, I saw a werewolf kill a friend of mine." Remus drew in a sharp breath. "Our families had taken us to Kew gardens and neither of us knew that it—that what, who, we saw —was a werewolf."

Remus was quite for a moment, Penny bit her lip to stop the tears from falling and Lucy pressed her shoulder against Remus'.

"Your fear is perfectly understandable," Remus said understandably.

"But not of you," Lucy spoke, her voice even and heavy, "Not of you when you're like this." When you're this kind, caring man who can't seem to hate someone who terrified of his very being.

"Right," Penny nodded, "My fear of you isn't valid because you're not the werewolf that killed my friend, your Lucy's—" Penny looked at Lucy quizzically. "Lucy's whatever."

"He shouldn't be feared because he's kind," Lucy corrected Penny, the same way a mother might correct a child's math problem, "He deserves basic respect and common courtesy we're all granted because he's a great bloke that we're all lucky to know, not because he's snogging me."

Dora snorted, and Penny nodded, "You're right," she agreed, while Remus turned to Lucy.

"You really think that?"

"Of course you git," Lucy smiled, she knocked her elbow into his. Remus wrapped his arm around her shoulder and kissed the corner of her temple.

"I'm lucky to know you," he murdered into her hair before turning back to Penny, ready to answer any questioned she had.

* * *

**January 10, 1994**

Remus Lupin had Lucy pushed up against the wall the old broomshed, one of the barrels Lucy had levitated into the small wooden shed before getting ambushed by the werewolf had been knocked over in their zealousness and the silk scarf Andre had given Lucy for Christmas stretched across the floor. Both their jackets were open, and both were only half on— despite the frigid temperature outside of the shed neither educator felt even the slightest bit cold —and Remus' gloves hung half way out his back pocket.

His hands moved up from her waist to stop midway up her ribcage as Lucy clung to the ends of his limply hanging scarf.

Lucy moaned as Remus placed his knee between her legs; she rolled against his thigh, something that caused the man to let out a low sounding growl as their teeth knocked against each other as their kissing got more frenzied. Lucy, craving friction, rolled herself against Remus' thigh again.

Remus pulled away, his breathing ragged. Lucy frowned, her lips followed his for a second before she leaned back against the wall, a crease formed between her brows.

"Can—can I?" He panted, his face pink. Lucy opened her eyes.

"What?" Lucy was just about ready to let the werewolf do just about anything if it meant he'd continue to kiss her.

"I didn't just want to—don't just want to—can I touch you?" Remus foundered ungracefully, his eyes wandering down to his chest. Lucy grinned, Jane had never asked, she had been timid and slow but she had never asked; neither had Lynch, the only other man Lucy been with before, he had been rough— of course their time together had always either been after a few pints or a fight —but to hear Remus ask her permission it made her heart soar in her chest.

"Yea," she said softly, she nodded,

"Can I touch you?" She asked in return, she could feel him pressing up against her stomach. Remus nodded, swallowing thickly.

Lucy moved to capture Remus' lips once more as his hand moved from her ribs to her breast; one of her hands moved to rest against his shoulder for stability while the other trailed down his body until she was cupping him.

She squeezed him, her thumb brushed over the zipper of pants as she traveled over the throbbing outline of his cock. Remus's pressed himself against her hand, breathing harshly.

His thumb brushed over Lucy's nipple, not harshly but hard enough where the fabric of her bra scrape against her flesh. A pleasurable moan vibrated through Lucy. Remus pinched at the her breast before slowly slipping his hand under her shirt. Lucy arched her back away from the wall and into Remus.

Lucy bit and tugged at the man's lip before moving back to overtake his mouth. He pulled down her bra and cupped her breast in his hand; Lucy felt goosebumps raise, thought she wasn't quite sure if was because Remus' hand felt like ice or because it was his hand.

Lucy's lips moved across his jaw- she teased his earlobe for a moment, nibbling on it, before she made her way— leaving behind a trail of butterfly kisses —to the hollow point of his throat, just under his bobbing Adam's apple. Remus let out a shuddering breath.

Lucy looked up at him through her lashes and smiled coyly. Remus moved the leg that was between hers and rubbed his thigh against her in a deliciously slow motion. Remus, as Lucy leaned her head back, her eyes shut blissfully, swooped down and latched his lips against the underside of her jaw.

Lucy rolled herself harder against his thigh as Remus sucked on the patch of skin. Lucy could feel a red hot coil tightening in her lower abdomen when a familiar voice called out;

"Lucy!" The witch in question jerked away from Remus, grimacing. "Lucy are you out here?"

"Yes Professor Sprout!" Lucy shouted towards the door, Remus jumped at the raised volume. "I'll be with you in a moment!" She turned to the man,

"I promised to help Sprout decorate her room. It's hers and Pomfrey's anniversary." Remus peered down at her fondly.

"That's sweet of you," he observed. Lucy pinkened.

"Shut the fuck up Lupin," she grumbled before dislodging herself from the werewolf. She picked up her scarf and smiled at him smiled at him,

"See you at dinner?" She wondered as she wrapped the silk around herself.

"I'll save you some pork belly." Lucy, grinning, couldn't stop herself from leaning in and pecking his lips.

…

Lucy had only just finished charming the various tiny Cupid's to levitate in the air when she noticed Professor Sprout eyeing her.

"Everything okay Professor?" Lucy wondered with raised brows.

"Of course dear, I was just trying to figure out who gave you that hickey," Professor Sprout smirked. Both of Lucy's hands clapped against the side of her neck.

"What? I-I don't—uh, um —have a hickey?" Lucy stuttered, her face turning a violent shade of pink.

"Of course not my mistake, must be a— What are the kids saying these days? A stinging hex to the neck?" Sprout giggled.

"I'm—Well, see here—It's actually a funny story," Lucy tripped, her mind racing wondering how this was more embarrassing than when Sinestra had come upon her Jane.

"It's fine," Sprout waved off, "As long as you and Mr. Lee are being safe—"

"Lee? Barnaby Lee? Merlin no!" Lucy's eyes widened. This time it was Sprout who turned pink.

"Ms. Snyde?"

"No!" Lucy shook her head admiently. "I—Don't tell anyone. Only Dora and Penny know," the British-Korean witch said, her hands finally detaching from her neck.

"You have my word," Sprout swore.

"Remus, we've sorta, kinda, been snogging since just after the new year."

"I knew it!" Sprout cried, she wiggled a finger up at the ceiling, "In your face Minierva!"

"You and McGonagall were betting on when Remus and I started snogging?" Lucy wondered in disbelief.

"Poppy, Flitwick and Burbage too. Minerva said the pair of you had gotten together around early December. Charity and I both agreed nothing had happened until the two of you had come back after break."

"And Flitwick and Pomfrey?"

"Poppy thought the two of you started seeing each other in—" Sprouts lips came together, "—October? Flitwick was sure after Remus apologized in November there was something there."

"Seriously?" Lucy knew Professors did this with students, betting on when two love struck kids would get together, pairing up fancies and kids they just thought would be cute cute because after a certain point you need the drama, but she had no idea that they did it with the colleagues as well.

"Quite."

"How much did you bet?"

"Five galleons."

"I have more on how long Flint and Wood think they can keep what they have a secret!"

* * *

**January 13, 1994**

"Mr. Wood if you're here about Mr. Potter's broom again I swear to Merlin I will bar Gryffindor from the pitch for the next month, is that clear?" Lucy called out to the seventh year without looking up from the letters she had been writing.

"Have a nice day Madam!"

* * *

**January 17, 1994**

Lucy had been sitting at her desk, joking around with Remus and Professor Sprout when Meiri Prewett through open her door looking frazzled.

"Meiri?" Lucy asked concerned, standing from her desk, "What's wrong?"

"I—boys!" She shouted, her fingers wrapping around the ends of her hair and pulling. "They're so stupid! Why do we keep them around!"

"Should I feel offended?" Remus wondered mirthfully. Meiri's eyes widened when she noticed both Remus and Professor Sprout.

"Oh, Professors, I—" Lucy snickered at the younger girls heavily flushed face. "I should go?"

"Not uh," Lucy shook her head, "Sit." She pointed at a stool. Meiri timidly sat down, her eyes refusing to meet anyone of the adults eyes.

"Now what did Ron do?" Lucy asked.

"Nothing, It wasn't Ron," Meiri murmured.

"Harry?" Meiri shook her head, "The twins?"

"Theo." Lucy's eyebrows raised.

"What did Mr. Nott do?" Lucy knew she wasn't above hexing a student.

"Nothing! Not really! I mean—he thinks Daphne Greengrass is pretty!" Meiri glared at floor.

"Oh," Lucy looked at Remus and Sprout, the former who had been twiddling his fingers while the ladder looked at Meiri sadly. "I'll speak to you two at dinner?" Lucy said to the two Professors, both of whom nodded and scurried out of the room—though Professor Sprout made sure to squeeze Meiri's shoulder before she exited the room after Remus.

"You fancy Theo?" Lucy asked delicately.

"No!" Meiri sighed, "Yes. Maybe I don't know, I don't want to. He's my friend, you know? Not Rons or anyone else's, mines." No she didn't, perhaps if she had brothers who were closer in age— and weren't dead or on the run —she might but she didn't.

"No? Not really." Meiri slumped forward. "Do you want advice on how to stop fancying him or how to get him to fancy you or…?" Lucy asked confused.

"Why's he think Daphne Greengrass is pretty?" Lucy heard the rest of the question loud and clear; Why doesn't he think I'm pretty.

"You're beautiful Mer," Lucy promised. And Meiri Prewett was; sure she may not have been a Narcissa Black two point zero but she was beautiful in her own right; she was taller than most girls, skinny and freckled with a head full of orange-red waves and a brilliant smile to boot.

"You're have to say that because you're my big sister," Meiri said.

"No I don't, but I am because it's true. And besides who cares if Theodore Nott thinks Greengrass is cute?"

"Me? That's the whole reason I'm here?"

"I was being sarcastic you snot, what I meant was just because he thinks Daphne is pretty doesn't mean he doesn't think you aren't. He's a boy, they usually think most girls are pretty."

"Then how do you know they like you?" Meiri wondered. Lucy pressed her lips together in thought. The only reason she had known Remus liked her was because he had said so, if he hadn't Lucy was sure she would have remained clueless.

"I don't know," Lucy told her truthfully. With girls it was simple, they were more touchy, slightly more mocking in a caring sense and always happy to be around you. But with boys?

"No idea?" Lucy shrugged.

"I'd write to Bill and ask him," Lucy told her.

"But then he'll tell Charlie who'll tell auntie Molly and uncle Arthur who'll tell Percy and he'll tell the twins who will tell Ron who then I'll have to murder because then the whole school will know because Ron can't keep his mouth shut!"

"Ask Bill not to tell anyone," Lucy said obviously.

"And he won't?"

"When Mia asked Bill and I for advice on Charlie before she and him started dating and Bill didn't let anything slip. Honestly he's great at keeping secrets." Meiri bit her lip.

"Alright, And you're sure he won't say anything?"

"Positive."

* * *

**January 26, 1994**

The night before the full moon Lucy sat on the couch in Remus' room in front of the blazing fire, he sat on the opposite end of the sofa, their legs tangled together in the middle under a large red and white knitted blanket Lucy had brought with her. Their plates sat on the coffee table, empty as Remus read a line from the A Midsummer Night's Dream in the First Folio copy.

"I must confess that I have heard so much and with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof—" the werewolf's voice caught in his throat as Lucy, slowly ran her foot along the length of Remus' leg.

"Why'd you stop?" Lucy wondered curiously, her foot still running the course of Remus' leg; his ankle, his calf, his knee, the inside of his thigh, and then back down just as slowly she had gone up it. He cleared his throat with a heated look in Lucy's direction.

"But being overfull of self-affairs, my mind did lose it.—But, Demetrius, come. And come, Egeus. You shall go with me." Lucy turned her head and her hair fell to one side, her sweaters collar fell just low enough to show off only the top of her collar bone. She grinned coyly when she caught sight of Remus looking at her, hungry.

"You stopped again," Lucy said, her voice light.

"Did I?" Remus questioned, his voice husky. Lucy flashed the man a pearly smile.

"You did." She threaded her fingers through her hair, only to run the pads of them down her neck when they reached the back of her head. Her fingers curled around the collar of her sweater; she caught her glossy lip between her teeth.

"Well maybe I found something better to do," Remus told her. He set the plain stip of parchment he used for a bookmark to hold his place before carefully putting the book on the coffee table before he turned back to her.

"Well don't play coy," Lucy said ironically, "Tell me." Remus moved his legs to kneel on the cushions in front of Lucy, she kept her elbows underneath her and her chest puffed out as grinned up at Remus.

"You," he said simply. In a flash Lucy had thrown herself onto her knees too, she pressed herself against Remus. Her fingers curled around the tee shirt he'd sleep in. One of his hands rested dangerously low on her back—not that she minded.

"And what exactly," Lucy spoke seductively, his lips were so close to hers that she was able to taste him without even touching him, "Are you going to do to me?"

Remus didn't verbally answer, instead he feverishly pressed his lips against Lucy's and plunged his younger into his mouth. Lucy felt her teeth knock against his as Remus groped her; her nails clawed at his chest and at the side of his neck.

The knitted blanket fell to the floor in a crumpled heap.

After Lucy had momentarily tore herself away to gulp at the air she did not press her lips back against Remus' but rather his neck. She nipped harshly at his Adam's apple— Remus tilted his head back as his hands trailed up under her sweater; Lucy shivered in delight as Remus opened up her bra —her fingers trailed down the center of his ribcage, past his belly button and paused when she reached the elastic of his pants. He pushed his pelvis to her with a groan.

Lucy could feel him pressed through his grey pajama pants, up against her lower stomach.

His hand came sunder the loosely hanging bra— the straps hung limply against her triceps under her sweater —cupped her breast and squeezed lightly before squeezing a second time, this time much harsher. Lucy moaned in Remus' mouth at the action. His thumb brushed over her harding nipple before taking it between his fingers, rolling it. She could feel her blood start to heat up.

Lucy's hand, for the first time slithered past his boxers. Remus jumped at the feeling, which caused Lucy to freeze. She jerked her head back, her lips still pressed against his,

"I can stop," she told him seriously. And she would, if he wanted her to, there would be no pleading or trying to get Remus back in the mood if this was as far as he wanted to go; she would lay back down and continue to listen to him recite old works of literature. Even if he mind wouldn't be on Shakespeare.

"Don't," he murdered before he resumed their kiss. His fingers worked against her breasts with a new vigor, his lips trailed across the base of Lucy's throat and as she grasped his cock in her hands— Lucy could feel the vein in the side throbbing—Remus went to grasp the hem of her sweater only for Lucy to grab one of his hands.

"I—my shirt stays on." Remus looked her confused, a crease formed between his brows. "My scars," she told him shyly. He nodded understandingly and dropped the hem before one hand slid into her pants while the other blacked on her waist.

"Is—is this okay?" He panted as Lucy's thumb brushed over the head of his cock. She nodded with a hum as she jerked her wrist. Remus moved his pelvis with her, groaning blissfully as he worked his own fingers. Lucy jerked when his fingers found her clit, she could feel Remus smirk against her lips.

Lucy could feel precum leak from Remus' cock.

After a moment, after Remus' thighs started to shake he slid a finger inside of her. Lucy's breath hitched as his teeth caught her earlobe. Lucy squeezed him; Remus breathed harshly through his nose before he put a second finger in Lucy. She moaned loudly.

His fingers started to work, curling and spreading apart while his thumb contained to rub her.

A coil below Lucy's navil started to tighten as her blood started to get hotter. Remus' breathing became even more ragged as Lucy sped up her pace. He came first, she could feel him on her wrist as he released with tired moan—though his fingers never stopped. In fact, as he road out his high he continued to goad Lucy to her own release until she too was seeing white, gasping, her heart hammering in her chest.

Lucy she took her hand out of his pants, and his hers and reached for his wand that laid next to the empty plates.

"Scourgify," he muttered pointing at her wrist before relating the spell at his hand. He tossed his wand back on the coffee table and wound his arms around Lucy's waist, bringing her to lay against his chest as he lowered himself back into his original spot.

"Merlin," he breathed with a chuckle. Lucy snorted.

"You can say that again."


	8. February 1994 - chapter eight

**February 3, 1994**

Lucy woke up in the arms of Remus Lupin, her nose was pressed between his collar bones and her hands were collided tightly around the fabric of his sweater while his were locked tightly around her arms and his knuckles rested against the small of her back his his nose steadily breathed in the sent of her shampoo.

Lucy closed her eyes, trying to remember when she had fallen asleep the night before.

She could remember how she had narrowingly avoided Harry as she left Remus' office— she knew if Harry had seen her in her pajamas heading up to Remus that the boy who lived would tell Ron, who like Meiri had stated, had a giant fucking mouth —and walking into Remus' office as he put away the boggart occupied wardrobe. Lucy could recall the two of them settling on his couch, talking about their childhoods.

Remus had reminisced on how for a few weeks during his summer he would send his time at the Potters with Peter Pettigrew and him, and how for those three weeks the four of them would explore the woods around the homey cottage, getting into all sorts of trouble, while Lucy fondly retold him stories of her time at the burrow, how though Bills great aunt Muriel seemed to love him most out of all seven Weasley children, whenever the old hag had come to visit she would do nothing but pick out Lucy's flaws, whether it be her tiny hips or the fact she wasn't white, and how as they grew older the twins used to slip toads in her shoes and insects into her food or hair because they knew Lucy wouldn't dare dream of getting even n any kind of way.

She could remember Remus placing both his hands on her hips and telling her, as he left scattered kissed along her exposed skin, just what he thought of her body, and then—nothing. She couldn't remember cuddling up to Remus under his blankets in bed, but as she closed her eyes once more she couldn't help but feel content to wake up in his arms.

_To wake up in his arms_! Lucy jerked out of Remus' arms, nearly falling out of bed as she turned to the wall with the clock on it. Remus shifted as she read the time, nine fifteen and while it was nine fifteen on a Sunday meaning neither of them had classes to entertain it was nine fifteen meaning most of the castle was waking up and would see her leaving Remus' room in her pajamas.

His arms snaked around her waist, pulling her closer. He made a low groaning sound in the back of his throat.

"Remus," Lucy said softly, she leaned down so her face hovered only slightly above his, "Remus, love," his eyes fluttered open slightly and he looked up at her.

"Morning," he smiled tenderly.

"Morning," Lucy pecked his lips once, and then twice, and then a third time, before she pulled away.

"It's a quarter after nine," she told him as Remus tucked his arms under himself to sit up.

"You should go," he replied, his fingers dug into the bed covers, "If you don't want students seeing you—"

"It's not so much me caring about the students seeing me," Lucy told him, _When will he get it through his thick head I don't care_, "It's more the fact I care about them seeing me leave your office in my pajamas." Remus looked at Lucy's pajamas, white silk pajama pants and a matching button down shirt that seemed to be missing its top button.

"I can offer you my jacket," Remus said, "But then I suppose students will ask us why you had it."

"Nosie shits," Lucy murmured as she kissed Remus once more, this time lingering against his lips as his tongue poked out from behind his teeth.

Lucy dragged herself from his bed and to the door where her slippers sat idly. As she reached for the handle she turned to Remus who ran a hand through his hair as the other stretched out behind him. His back arched, and he yawned and yet Lucy stood there for a moment forzen.

"I'll see you later," she promised him.

He turned to her and smiled, "See you." And then she left.

Lucy Black was not in love with Remus Lupin, she cared for him but she didn't not love him. But that didn't mean she couldn't.

…

Lucy had managed to avoid all the students until she approached her door, because standing in front of her office door was Harry Potter, who held what Lucy could only assume was his firebolt, and a pouting Ronald Weasley.

"Lucy?" The red head questioned. He looked at her curiously, and then her pajamas and then her door.

"I feel asleep in Professor Sprouts office, we were up late gossiping and I sort of just fell out on her couch," Lucy lied akwardly. _I suppose the only thing worse then Ron finding me would be Mrs. Weasley._

"Oh," he then turned to Harry, "Harry got his Firebolt back last night."

"That's great!" Lucy beamed supportively. Thought it didn't make sense, if he had gotten the broom back it meant he had not sent it, but if not him then who would send Harry such a gift? The kid was a lovely, well mannered boy but to send him a firebolt?

_I suppose it could just be someone who's just come into money wanting to thank Harry. After all he did kill You-Know-Who._

"Thanks," Harry said. Lucy high fived the seeker and pinched Ron's cheeks— the red head swatted her hand away while Lucy chuckled —as she brushed past the two boys to open her office, both Gryffindor followed her as she made her way to her desk chair. They both sat on the stools.

"We were hoping, cause someone needs to be on the pitch when students fly—"

"If I'd come watch Harry?"

"If you don't mind," Harry said.

"Not at all, though if your friend Hermione is coming—" Lucy cut herself off when she saw the sour look on Ron's face.

"Did something happen between you and Hermione?"

"Her bloody cat ate Scabbers!" Ron thundered, he threw his hands up in air and Harry looked to the ceiling, most likely already having heard Ron a million times before.

Lucy, who loved Ron like the little brother she had never had, but much like both Bill and Charlie had never liked the creepy rat, grimaced.

"I'm sure Hermione's cat didn't mean too," Lucy said. Harry shook his head furiously, signalling along that that had not been the right thing to say. And it hadn't been, because by defending Hermione Granger, more so than her cat, Ron stood from his chair and for the next ten minutes, in a very animated way, explained how "That beast of cat, that monster of a domesticated animal, had knowingly murdered Scabbers!"

All the meantime Lucy and Harry communicated with looks.

_You had to stick up for the cat_, Harry mused with raised brows and a half frown.

_I didn't like the rat,_ Lucy told with pinched lips narrowed eyes.

_Neither did I,_ Harry responded with a twitch of the ears and a subtle jerk of the head.

"You know Scabbers hadn't been looking so well," Lucy said gently as Ron sat down. The young teen crossed his arms over his chest.

"No."

"Well then maybe this was for the best." Ron's mouth fell open and Harry's eyes widened. "What I mean to say is, you loved Scabbers didn't you?" Lucy asked Ron.

"He was part of the family." Lucy held back from pointing out that she was part of the family, Scabbers was a creepy rat that Percy had hid under his bed in a box until he'd grown so attached to the rodent that neither Molly or Arthur could talk him out of loving the plauge carrying pest.

"Then maybe you should be happy he's not suffering anymore. I mean twelve years, that's a long time for most pets. And Scabbers, I'm sure he was in a lot of pain."

"So what that beast killing him was an act of mercy?" Ron hissed._ Yes. It was a favor for us all,_ Lucy thought. She of course didn't say that.

Instead she said; "If it makes you feel better, for your birthday present, this summer I'll take you to Diagon Alley and you can pick whatever let you want." Ron perked up at that. "So long as it won't sick your brothers," she added as an afterthought. Ron tried to fight the smile that played on his lips.

"You mean it? Any pet?"

"You know as well as I do your father will flip if we bring home a crup."

"What's that?" Harry wondered.

"They're this magical breed of dog—" Ron said turning to his best friend

"Magical dogs?" Harry blinked, he looked weary at the thought.

"Yes, though they aren't the friendliest towards muggles which is why you need licenses for them and everything. And the very same reason your father won't allow one in the house." Ron bit his lip.

"I guess. I mean if he did we could always lend him to Harry," Ron nudged Harry's arm with his elbow and the dark skinned boy tried not to smile at whatever thought ran threw his mind.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," Lucy said. She stood from her chair, "Now feel free to have at the cookies in my desk— Harry please make sure Ron doesn't eat them all—" Ron stuck his tongue out at Lucy to which she responded by flipping him off, "While I go get changed so we can all head to the pitch."

"Will do." Lucy flashed Harry a smile and Ron a sarcastic sisterly eye roll before walking back to her room.

_Today's going to be a good day_, Lucy thought happily.

* * *

**February 6, 1994**

Lucy's first year Ravenclaw-Slytherin class had only just began when Tahani Al Jamil walked up to her, her hands clasped together against her stomach. Tahani tried to flash Lucy her usual thousand watt smile only to form a grimace instead.

"Is everything alright Mis. Al Jamil?"

"Sort of ma'am," Tahani paused, she chewed her lip and sighed, "I can't play Quidditch anymore." Lucy frowned. Tahani was the captain of the first year Ravenclaw team, she loved Quidditch.

"Can't play—is everything alright Tahani?" Lucy asked concerned.

"Yes," the young witch said quickly, "It's just, my parents, they don't think I should be waiting time playing a silly sport when I can do something more productive with my time." Lucy's heart twisted painfully, her before she had lost her sanity her mother had thought the same— "_Proper_ _pureblood_ _ladies_ _don't_ _need_ _to_ _know_ _how_ _to_ _play_ _Quidditch_. _It's_ _a_ _waste_ _of_ _time_."

"Do you think it's a silly sport?" Lucy asked the young girl. Tahani blinked up at Lucy.

"What?"

"Do you think Quidditch is silly?" Tahani shook her head fiercely.

"No—no ma'am," Tahani said. Lucy smiled down at the young girl,

"Then it's not a silly sport. Tahani if you love the sport then no one should stop you—"

"But my parents—"

"I'll talk to them, I'll make them see reason." Tahani didn't look convinced,

"Ma'am, my parents are muggles, they won't understand what being a Quidditch star means." Lucy shrugged flippantly.

"Maybe not, but like you I was raised a socialite." Sort of. Lucy had the makings of a socialite; where she failed she was sure years of watching Narcissa would pay off.

Tahani shifted her weight from one leg to the other. "You mean it?"

Lucy crossed her heart the same way she had when Meiri and Ginny were young and she would promise one of them something, "Cross my heart. Now Captain," Lucy grinned and then Tahani, "Go practice, it'd be a shame if Slytherin won because you feel behind on your training."

"Yes ma'am—and ma'am?"

"Yes Miss. Al Jamil?"

"Thank you."

* * *

**February 12, 1994**

The castle was buzzing. Today would be Harry Potter's first match with his new broom and it was against Ravenclaw. Lucy, at breakfast, already in her robes and with her whistle around her neck, played some eggs when Remus turned away from Burbage to her.

"So Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw?" He grinned mischievously. His eyes shined brightly. What is he up to?

"Yeah. From what I've seen over training Ravenclaw gonna give Gryffindor somewhat of a fight."

"I wouldn't count on it," Remus told her. Neither of them leaned in any closer for the sake of professionalism but Lucy knew if the two of them had been alone he would have. She could almost feel his breath in her face if she imagined it.

"And why's that? Just because the Gryffindor team has a firebolt doesn't mean they'll win, one broom won't change the tides of a game," Lucy said. Remus grinned at her and shrugged.

"Maybe so but firebolt or not the Gryffindor team has Harry."

"Maybe. I'll still bet you though."

"And uh," Lucy chuckled huskily, "What are you willing to wager Professor?" Remus' eyes glazed over and his Adam's apples bobbed violently.

"I'll let you know when I win."

…

Lucy stood in the middle of the field as both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor teams walked walked out to tumultuous applause. Ravenclaw, dressed in blue that reminded Lucy so much of the Tornadoes uniforms, reached the middle first.

"Wood, Davies, shake hands," Lucy said. Wood shook hands with the Roger Davies. She looked at the Gryffindor team, Harry's leg was bouncing anxiously, then to the Ravenclaws, Cho Chang smiled at Lucy to which she returned. "Mount your brooms... on my whistle... three — two — one —"

Harry kicked off into the air and the Firebolt zoomed higher and faster than any other broom; he soared around the stadium. Lucy took to the sky herself as she listened all the while to the commentary, which was being provided by Lee Jordan.

"They're off, and the big excitement this match is the Firebolt that Harry Potter is flying for Gryffindor. According to Which Broomstick, the Firebolt's going to be the broom of choice for the national teams at this year's World Championship —"

"Jordan, would you mind telling us what's going on in the match?" interrupted Professor McGonagall's voice.

"Right you are, Professor — just giving a bit of background information — the Firebolt, incidentally, has a built-in auto-brake and —"

"Jordan!" Lucy smiled at the young commentator. Back when she had been in school Professor McGongall had let Ben comment once, before she had learned the usually nervous student knew how to swear in three different languages.

"Okay, okay, Gryffindor in possession, Katie Bell of Gryffindor, heading for goal..." Lucy noticed Harry streak past Katie in the opposite direction, looking everywhere for the snitch not even she had yet spotted.

Lucy heard once of the twins say something but she had been too busy watching Angelia Johnson, a Gryffindor Chaser, steal the Quaffle from one of the Ravenclaw hater to catch what he had said. Though whatever he had said had caused Harry to urge the Firebolt forward as he rounded the Ravenclaw goal posts. Cho fell behind.

Just as Katie Bell, a Gryffindor, succeeded in scoring the first goal of the match, and the Gryffindor end of the field went wild, Lucy saw it. Harry noticed it a split second after her and as he dived after it Cho Change tore after him. Harry was sped up and Lucy leaned forward wondering if the game would end before it had truly started started when a Bludger, hit by one of the Ravenclaw Beaters, came pelting out of nowhere; Harry veered off course, avoiding it by an inch, and in those few, crucial seconds, the Snitch had vanished.

There was a great "Ooooooh" of disappointment from the Gryffindor supporters, but much applause for their Beater from the Ravenclaw end. A Weasley twin vented his feelings by hitting the second Bludger directly at the offending Beater, who was forced to roll right over in midair to avoid it.

"Gryffindor leads by eighty points to zero, and look at that Firebolt go! Potter's really putting it through its paces now, see it turn — Chang's Comet is just no match for it, the Firebolt's precision — balance is really noticeable in these long —"

"JORDAN! ARE YOU BEING PAID TO ADVERTISE FIREBOLTS? GET ON WITH THE COMMENTARY!"

As the game moved along Ravenclaw was pulled back; they had now scored three goals, which put Gryffindor only fifty points ahead — if Cho got the Snitch before Harry Ravenclaw would win.

Lucy was about to call out a Ravenclaw Chaser for a dirty— though not necessarily illegal move —when Harry accelerated only for Cho appeared out of thin air, blocking him.

"Harry this is no time to be a gentleman!" Wood roared as Harry swerved to avoid a collision. "Knock her off her broom if you have to!"

"Merlin help me Potter if you knock Chang off her broom you'll be out a game—encrouage your players to play dirty again Wood and Gryffindor will be suspended a game!" Lucy yelled. Woods eyes widened as Harry turned and caught sight of Cho; she was grinning.

Harry turned his Firebolt upward and was soon twenty feet above the game. Cho followed him. She's decided to mark Harry rather than search for the Snitch herself, Lucy mused. She herself had never done that in all her time playing, she had never had to, but it was a trick adequate Seekers used when playing their betters.

It was usually the adequate Seekers folly. Harry dived again, and Cho, thinking he'd seen the Snitch, tried to follow; Harry pulled out of the dive very sharply; she hurtled downward; he rose fast as a bullet once more, and then accelerated; so, many feet below, did Cho.

And then she stopped. "Oh!" screamed Cho, pointing.

Her fright distracted both Harry and Lucy and half of the others players on the field because dementors wer once again on the pitch. Only this time Three Dementors, three tall, black, hooded Dementors, were looking up at the players. Lucy froze, Harry on the other hand didn't stop to think. Plunging a hand down the neck of his robes, he whipped out his wand and roared, "Expecto patronum!"

Something silver-white, something enormous, erupted from the end of his wand. He knew it had shot directly at the Dementors and instead of turning tail and running away three recognizable students fell off their brooms and into the sandy banks.

Lucy blew forcibly into her whistle seconds before she had noticed Harry had caught the snitch. Lucy flew down to the three Slytherin, steam metaphorically blowing out her ears as the Gryffindor team raced over to their heroic Seeker and the crowd cheered wildly for the win.

She landed at the three teens feet, "How dare you three—do you—stand up! Stand up right this second. If you're big enough to endanger the lives of other students, your big enough to take the conquences like men—" Draco Malfoy, Goyle And Crabbe all took to their feet.

"Flint! Someone get me Marcus Flint! And Professor Snape!" Lucy shouted to the stands. Two Hufflepuff students who had been standing above the four rushed off to get the two Professors and Slytherin Quidditch Captain.

Lucy turned to Draco, "You're off the team Malfoy!" The boys mouth dropped open, "Try again next year I don't care but for the rest of the duration I'm here you're off!"

"You're joking!" He protested as both Professors McGongall and Snape appeared. "Professor it was a joke!" He cried to Snape.

"It was a dirty unworthy trick!" Shouted McGongall. "A low and cowardly attempt to sabotage the Gryffindor Seeker! Detention for all of you, and fifty points from Slytherin! I shall be speaking to Professor Dumbledore about this, make no mistake!"

"It was a school yard trick Minerva, I seem to remember you quite fine with them back in my day," Snape said cooley. McGongall turned a bright red, she turned to Snape and opened her mouth when Lucy cut her off and in voice, just as haunty and emotionless as he had addressed McGongall she told him;

"That may be the case Snape but I am the Quidditch instructor and I made my rules expilitly clear in the beginning of the year. Malfoy is off the team for the remainder of the year."

"We'll see about that," he snapped before dragging Cissy's son off by the scuff if his neck. The Goyle and Crabbe boys followed after.

"Off the team?" McGongall wondered with a raised brow. "Truthfully I wouldn't have thought to petition that." Lucy didn't smile at the Deputy Headmistress because as much as she hated to admit it, Snape had been right, she, like most of the Professors, were fine with school yard tricks and taunts as long as it was played on Slytherins.

"I don't like bullying. Joke or not." And then she walked twords the pitches gate where Remus stood, smirking.

Lucy stopped where he stood. "You won," she mused avoiding his hungry eyes in public. She didn't want to scar any passing children with what she might do if she couldn't drag her eyes away from him.

"I guess I did." Lucy took a step closer to him and their toes were touching.

"I guess you're happy?"

"I'll be happier when we get back to yours." Lucy felt her stomach do a swooping motion as she smirked up at him.

"I guess we'll have to hurry. I always have liked your smile."

…

Lucy in Remus' arms, woke up with a jerk to Professor Sprout pounding on her door.

"Lucy! Lucy!" The older witch knocked loudly, "Lucy wake up!" Lucy turned and violently shook Remus awake.

"Remus—Rem, love, wake up." With bleary eye the werewolf woke up.

"Wha-what's going on?" He slurred tiredly,

"No idea," Lucy shrugged. She grabbed her pants from the floor and tip toed over to the door as Remus sat more upright in bed. Lucy had only turned the doorknob when Professor Sprout burst through the door.

"There's been an attack at Gryffindor tower!" She cried. Both Lucy and Remus stilled waiting for the early hysterical Herbology Professor to continue on, "Minerva sent me a patronus, Black— Sirius —he attacked the Weasley boy, Ro—"

Lucy, with her wand forgotten on the bedside table, was already sprinting out the door and twords Gryffindor tower. It was as if the castle could feel her fear as the staircases, which she took two at a time, moved to create the quickest route to Gryffindor tower.

What would usually take twenty minutes took Lucy all of eleven.

Lucy jumped through the opened portrait hole to see Professor McGongall, still in her nightgown and cap, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger and all five Weasley children in the common room. Lucy didn't stop moving until she was kneeling down in front of Ronald. Her hands clasped each side of this face, her thumbs moved over his cheeks before checking over his arms and abdomen for any injuries.

"What the fuck happened?" Lucy asked Ron, her hands firmly on his shoulders. If Professor McGongall had cared, or noticed, that she had sworn she didn't say anything to contradict otherwise.

"Sirius Black— He—a knife! My curtains!" Ron said loudly. Lucy pulled him tightly to her chest. She peered at McGongall who stood in the portrait hole.

"How did this happen?" Lucy asked roughly. It was her job to keep the students— escpially the Gryffindor students —safe so how had he gotten close enough to stab Ron?

"Sir Cadgain changed the passwords far too often for Mr. Longbottom to remember so it seems he took to writing tem all down. He lost the list and—"

"And Sirius found it," Lucy said angerly.

Lucy Black had never actively wanted to kill her brother. When he had intically broken out she wanted to be the one to catch him, to find him in a dark ally way and personally hand him over to the dementors. The first time he had broken into the castle Lucy was sure she would have killed him on site but now? Now all the young ex-Seeker wanted to do was hunt him down like the mongrel she knew him to be and make sure the people she cared about were safe.

"It seems so." Lucy nodded, her hand left Ron's shoulder and began to run through his hair, the same way she had always done whenever he had come to her after a nightmare.

"Go pack a night bag, bring your school bags and clothes for tommrow, all of you," Lucy told the Weasley children. None of them questioned it, all of them just did, silently. Harry followed Ron up the stairs and Hermione followed Ginny.

"Night bag? Where do you expect your taking the Weasleys?" McGonagall asked sharply.

"To my room. Obviously this portrait is to stupid to know who he should and should let in—"

"Hey!" The portrait cried, Remus, holding her wand, Professor Sprout and the Headmaster all appeared behind the Deputy Headmistress.

"So forgive me if I don't want my family sitting around waiting for some lunatic to just appear." Lucy snarled. She wondered if Dumbledore would fire her for setting the portrait on fire. She then wondered if it were murder, technically they're half alive. Though they are sentient they don't breath or eat. Technically it couldn't be murder. Right?

McGongall opened her mouth to snap something back when Dumbledore laid a hand on her shoulder.

"It's alright Minerva, Lucy here may take the Weasley back to hers—Ms. Prewett too I assume?" Lucy nodded. Of course she wanted Meiri where she could see her, Hufflepuff common room having actual defenses or not. Dumbledore turned to Sprout and muttered something and the plump woman nodded before scurrying off.

Remus passed McGongall and handed Lucy her wand, "Well find him," he told her, his hand cupping her face. Wordlessly Lucy nodded. Remus pressed his lips to the crown of Lucy's head only to pull away when the first set of footsteps echoed from the boys dormitory.

Ron and Harry stood there, Ron clutched Harry's arm.

"Can Harry come, where ever we're going? It wouldn't feel right to just leave him."

"Of course," Lucy said without any hesitation. Ron seemed to breath a sigh of relief, as did Harry. Harry turned and pulled a bag off the staircase. A moment later Ginny came down the girls staircase and then the twins and Percy.

"We're going to my office, my room. I'll feel better knowing that should anything else happen I'll be there." Ginny walked over to Lucy and wrapped one arm around her side squeezing her; Lucy tucked the young girl under her arms and ran her nails aginst her scalp.

"Everything will be okay Gin," Lucy swore, "I won't let anything happen to you—any of you."

"And what if Sirius Black hurts you?" Ginny asked quietly.

"He won't get the chance," Lucy said. "Now come on we have to stop by the Hufflepuff common room and pick up Meiri."

"I instructed Professor Sprout to get her and bring her to your office," Dumbledore told. Lucy nodded as she tucked Ron under her other arm, the one holding her wand. Though she made sure to hold Harry's shirt between two of her fingers; if she had a third arm she would tuck him under that.

When the boy looked up at her and forced herself to smile reassuringly down at him. He tried to smile back up at her.

"I'll check in later," Remus told Lucy, only for both twins to glare at him.

"She didn't let him in!" One of them snapped, each of the Professors in the room blinked surprised. The Weasley twins were jokesters. They would at times talk back and joke at a Professors expense but they weren't disrespectful to them. Even Percy Weasley glared harshly at the Defense Professor.

"She wouldn't do that. Especially if he went after Ron," the other twin snapped in the same angry tone before either McGongall or Dumbledore could repremand them for their tone.

"I didn't mean it like that," Remus told the boys, "I just want to make sure you're all okay."

Lucy looked at both twins greatfuly before turning to Remus. "That's fine with me," she said softly before she lead the small group down seven flights of stairs to her office where Meiri and Professor Sprout waited.

Meiri, when she caught sight of Ron, threw herself at him, wrapping her arms tightly around him.

"Thank Merlin you're okay!" She quickly then pulled Harry into the tight hug, both boys responded somewhat awkwardly.

"Thank you for letting me know," Lucy told Sprout, as each of the children filed into her office.

"It was no problem," Sprout waved off. With a flash of a coy smile the older woman whispered, "I also had an elf replace your sheets." Lucy's face burned red.

"I—goodnight Professor," Lucy mumbled before closing the door behind her.

"Lucy?" Ron asked as she corralled all of them into her room.

"Yeah Ron?"

"What if he comes back?"

"Then I'll stop him from getting to you guys," Lucy promised. "I won't let him hurt you—any of you."

"But what if he hurts you?" Meiri wondered, just as Ginny had. Lucy looked at the kids, because that's what they were, even Percy, they were all school kids forced to go through terrible things and it pained Lucy because they were her family and she wanted nothing more then to protect them.

"He won't," Lucy said, "I'm better than him." _Probably_.

"Hey Lucy?"

"Yeah Ron?"

"Thanks." Lucy smiled at her pseudo younger brother and kissed the crown of his head, not quite the way Remus had done to her—this was the kind of forehead kiss your mother gave you.

"Welcome."

…

Lucy sat in her desk chair outside the room in her office. She had transfigured her two pillows into mattresses and her books into pillows and even then the two extra mattresses had only just been enough to fit all eight students. Not that Lucy minded, she hadn't planned on getting any sleep.

Remus opened the office door and poked his head in.

"Hey," he said quietly. He shut the door behind him just as quietly.

"Hi," Lucy responded tiredly. She looked at Remus and felt her heart sink. "You didn't find him?"

"I'm sorry." Remus walk over to where Lucy sat in her chair and sat on the edge of her desk. "We searched everywhere but it was like he vanished."

"You can't apperate in Hogwarts," Lucy repeated the thing Hermione Granger seemed to constantly tell people this year.

"I know."

It was quite for a minute. She could hear the kids on the other side of the door playing poker because all of them had given up on sleep. Every so often someone would growl Fred or George and she would know the twins were cheating. When they were eight and walked in on her, Mia, Bill and Charlie playing poker and threatened to tell Mrs. Weasley if they weren't given half the pot— licorice wands, chocolate frogs and crystalline pineapple —she had instead taken the time and taught them how to cheat, mainly because she was winning and hadn't wanted to share the candy.

"I want to kill him," Lucy said after a few moments, "He went after Ron—I want him dead Remus."

"He's your brother. You can't kill him anymore then you could kill your mother," he told her softly. Lucy could see the tiredness in his face, the resign.

When he had given James and Lily Potter to You-Know-Who and murdered Pettigrew and all twelve muggles Sirius had hurt Remus far more than he had hurt Lucy. While all Sirius had done was take away the dream of getting away from her mother, something Lucy found out she hadn't needed Sirius for, he had taken away the life Remus had grown to know, shattering the werewolves very world and leaving him with no way to repair it.

"He went after Ron." Remus held her hand tightly.

"It's not your fault."

"And what if it is? What if he went after Ron because of me? What if—" Remus cut Lucy off with a quick peck of the lips.

"What reason would he have to hurt someone you love?"

"I don't know," Lucy shrugged.

"Then think rationally. As horrible as it sounds, he probably meant to go after Harry and he got the bed wrong."

"If we're thinking rationally then none of it makes sense," Lucy said. "Why did he run when Ron started screaming? Harry was a bed away, he could have killed him then. It's not like he cares about getting caught."

"Then he wants something else. Not just Harry dead," Remus said tensely. _Poor_ _Harry_. Lucy heart urned for the young boy.

"You need to give the kid a hug," Lucy said.

"What?"

"Harry, you need to give him a hug. I mean this kid hasn't had it easy in what? Twelve years? Someone needs to give him a hug and promise him it'll be okay."

"You do it, if I do it'll be weird," Remus breathed.

"I'm his friends older sort of sister. You're his favorite Professor. You would have been his uncle Remus in another life. It makes more sense for you too."

"I'm not his uncle Remus though am I?" Remus frowned, "I'm his Professor, favorite or not it'll be weird."

Lucy felt her heart shatter at the broken look on his face. She clasped her hand over and kissed him softly, it wasn't a hug but— "Everything will be okay." Remus pressed his lips against hers, harder than she had against his.

"Everything will be okay."

* * *

**February 14, 1994**

When she had been a student there had been no dwarf with badly made cardboard Cupid wings to read out sonnets, which was more than likely the reason why Lucy, never having been able to do it Bill or any of her other friends, had paid the diaper wearing dwarf three galleons to follow Remus around the castle and recite terrible muggle poetry to. And another fifteen to anonymously— "_Under no circumstances are you to tell him it was me who paid you"_ —spend the rest of the day following Snape around, loudly reciting a poem Ginny had helped write: "_Everyone hates your dark demeanor, your hair could be cleaner, you're no one's favorite teacher, and if not only for the fact you don't know how to shower one might think you're a sopping wet creature."_

While Remus, who had cornered Lucy in a hidden alcove once the dwarf had left to find Snape, knew it had been her who sent the tiny man after him between classes Snape could only hazard a guess to who would pay the dwarf causing one of the worst tantrums Lucy had ever seen the Potions Master throw.

"My! Severus put that dwarf down now!" McGonagall snapped after lunch. It was outside of the Great Hall that Snape had taken the dwarf by the rope of his wings, lifing him off the ground, and started to shake him.

Lucy bit her lip as she and Sprout, and a large portion of students looked on. Sprout, who had known it was Lucy who paid the dwarf gripped Lucy's arm tightly, her nails dug into her skin nearly hard enough to draw blood. Neither of them knew if they should laugh or look away in horror.

"He will! Not tell! Me who! Paid! Him!" Snape painted, still not releasing the dwarf.

"That doesn't give you the right to attack him!"

"Derek!" Flitwick squeaked after he had pushed to the front of crowd.

"Snape! Put my- him -down now!" Flitwick demanded, drawing his wand. Shocked that Flitwick had drawn his wand Severus dropped the Cupid-dwarf. Flitwick and McGonagall hurried over to the dwarf who laid against the stone flooring, arms already out and expression dazed. Flitwick glared up at Snape.

"What is wrong with you Severus!" McGonagall asked horrified.

"I—"

"Obviously a lot! What sort of person attacks someone for doing their job!" Flitwick angrily squeaked; and with that McGonagall and Flitwick carted Derek the Cupid-dwarf off to Madam Pomfrey. Snape stood rooted to his spot before storming off towards the dungeons.

Sprout turned to Lucy, "You're getting him a fruit basket."

"I'll get him several." Lucy caught sight of one of the twins shaking his counterpart the same way Snape had shaken the dwarf. Some students turned to their friends and bursted into a fit of uncontrollable giggles while others gosspied excitedly.

…

Lucy had never spent a Valentine's Day with someone before. She had only still been pining after Jane when that particular Valentine's Day had rolled around and neither she nor Aidan Lynch had a very Valentine's Day sort of relationship. So while she had known it was Valentine's Day it hadn't occurred that people actually did stuff on it.

Which was why when Remus knocked on her door with flowers in one hand and a picnic basket in the other she was wearing her sweatpants with the stain on then and her Destiny Child's shirt.

Lucy looked at the flowers and then Remus. "What are you doing here?" She asked. "Not that I don't mind but flowers? Why?"

"It's Valentine's Day. You sent a dwarf after me," Remus laughed as Lucy side stepped to allow him entry into the room.

"And?"

"People usually do more for Valentine's Day then pay a dwarf to harass their—Er—"

"Their Remus'?" Lucy asked, unbothered their relationship still not having a title not that she truly cared, she rather have him then some arbitrary title.

"Yeah."

"Then what do they usually do?" Lucy wondered with her arms crossed as she grinned at him.

"Well usually one party will give the other flowers," Remus handed over the beautiful bouquet. "Sometimes they'll go out to dinner—we already had dinner so I asked the elves to pack desert —and usually they'll do other stuff." Lucy looked at Remus coyly, hiding her face half behind the bouquet.

"What kind of stuff?" She fluttered her eyelashes. Remus grappled her by the waist with one hand and brought her in for a bruising kiss. Lucy wound her arms around his neck, the flowers clutched tightly in her hand brushed the back of the werewolfs head.

When Lucy pulled away she beamed at him, her face a rosy red, "I like stuff like that."

"So do I," Remus murmured against her lips before pulling away. "You should out the flowers away," he told her as he moved to rest the basket on the counter. Lucy huffed but contended as she moved to her kitchen area to grab a glass.

She pulled her wand from her hair and pointed it at the glass. "Engorgo." The glass grew to be nearly five times its originally size. "Aguamenti." She then put the flowers in the glass turned vase before walking to Remus who leaned in front of her fireplace starting a fire.

When the flame had been lit Remus turned to Lucy.

"Hey."

"Hi." They both grinned at each other. Remus reaches out and dragged Lucy aginst him. Her palms pressed flat against his bony chest.

"You're beautiful," Remus told her.

"You're not too bad either," Lucy flirted.

"No," Remus said intensely, his voice strong, "I mean you're beautiful." His eyes burned so brightly Lucy worried she'd wither beneath them. "Everything about you is beautiful."

"Not everything, I assure you," Lucy said thinking of the horrid scars that littered her body. She smiled up at him, "I'm an ugly crier. You've seen it." Remus kissed her lips.

"Beautiful." His hands slipped under her shirt. He pulled it down from the inside and took no time in kissing the scar just beneath her collar bone. Lucy sucked in a deep breath.

"Beautiful," he said against it.

"You don't mean that," Lucy protested. Remus pulled away. His hands left her skin and he started to unbutton his own shirt until it hung open leaving Lucy to stare at a scared chest.

Three thick scars ran from his left shoulder to his right hip, the outer two faded every so often but the middle on that cut across his navel never wavered. Another scar trailed along the length of his ribcage and a handful of other less noticeable ones cut across his chest.

Lucy's hand drifted out to touch him only for her to pull it back with the other and cage it against herself.

"Werewolf scars don't fade." He told her, "Before the wolfbane potion I would turn on myself, these being the result." Softly he took her hand in his and brought her hand against the thickest most noticeable scar.

"Why are you telling me this?" She asked him softly.

"I was in my office today and I was thinking of you and how much it pained me that you're ashamed of anything about yourself."

"You're ashamed of yourself," Lucy pointed out. She wasn't sure why she had said that, she just had.

"It's different. You shouldn't be ashamed of your scars."

"And You should be ashamed of yours?"

"I'm different. Your scars show everyone you're a survivor, how strong you are; but me? Mine show everyone I'm a monster, Lucy—" Lucy grabbed Remus chin between her thumb and forefinger.

"I've told you before Remus I know monsters. You aren't one of them." Remus pressed his lips firmly against Lucy's, her hands had only just rested against his chest when he tugged on her shirt.

"Please," he whispered. Lucy's brows knitted together in thought before she nodded. In one fluid motion Remus had her shirt over her head and on the floor next to them. Remus marveled at her and her cotton bra as if she were the prettiest of models dressed up in the sexiest of lingerie.

"Beautiful," he told her with a kind smile before dipping his head to kiss her scar. Lucy kissed his shoulder and the start of each of the three scars that ran across his chest. His thumb brushed over her nipple, Lucy's breath hitched as it always did.

When he kissed her his hand had left her chest and instead moved to back of her thighs. She shrieked when he picked her up, her arms tightly hugging him at the sudden movement as her legs locked around his waist. Remus laughed as he slowly moved them to her bed, he stole a kiss with every other step.

He set her back against the bed and crawled on top of her, losing his shirt as he did so. Lucy marveled up at him. Tenderly she touched his face.

She couldn't say it; I love you. She couldn't even tell him she adored him in fear of ruining the heated moment but as she breathed she thought the words so hard she could practically hear them in the air.

Lucy rolled her hips against Remus', he responded by pushing back against her immediately. The nails on one hand scraped against the scalp of his head while the nails on her other clawed at the space between his shoulders. Lucy felt heat flood her legs the more she rocked against him.

Lucy groaned eagerly as she kissed Remus, his mouth opened and she wasted no time in sliding her tongue into his mouth. It wasn't so much a battle as it was a dance. Remus balanced himself on one of his arms while he used the other to pull her breasts over her bra. Remus' thumb swiped over her nipple— Lucy's back arched —and his lips moved from her mouth to her jaw and down her neck, stopping at her scar before wrapping around her other breast.

His teeth scraped against her flesh before his tongue shot out to sooth the abused spot. Lucy's hands maneuvered themselves from Remus hair to between them. She groped at his hardening member over his pants before slipping past the clothing. Remus switched his attention to her other breast.

Lucy moaned as Remus did, the vibrations of his mouth caused her eyes to roll back into her head in pleasure. Her thumb swiped over the head of his cock; Remus' hips jerked as she slid her hand further down his shaft.

Remus' mouth moved from Lucy's breast back up the length of her neck and his hand slithered down the front of her sweatpants only to pause when he realized she wasn't wearing underwear. He let out a throaty groan. He slid one finger inside of her and curled it, massaging her front wall before sliding a second. His thumb coated itself in her fluids before making its way to her pulsing clit.

Lucy pushed herself up from the mattress and further into Remus' hand. Lucy sped up her motions while Remus pressed her harder as he rubbed her causing her to moan.

A few moments later, after they both— Remus then Lucy —devolved into painting messes, the pair of them laid horizontally across her bed.

"Hey Remus?" She said between her breaths.

"Yeah Lucy."

"Happy Valentine's Day."

"Happy Valentines Day Lucy."

* * *

**February 16, 1994**

Lucy, wearing a thick turtleneck and Remus, who smiled cheekily at her whoever she caught his eye were patrolling the sixth floor corridor when the pair of them heard sniffles. Loud sniffles followed by muffled sobs all coming from behind a tapestry.

Lucy arched out and grabbed Remus' wrist. "Who's crying at eleven at night?" Why?

"How should I know," Remus replied as they moved to the ancient Scottish tapestry. Remus grabbed the bottom and lifted it to reveal a sobbing Ophelia LeStrange.

"Ophelia?" Lucy asked. She ducked under the fabric and kneeled in front of the orange haired girl. Ophelia, with glossy eyes and a violently quivering lip looked up at Lucy before bursting out into even louder sobs. Lucy didn't hesitate to wrap her arms tightly around the young Slytherin and pull her to her chest.

Lucy looked to Remus and used her hand to motion for him to go away. Slowly he lowered the tapestry leaving both Lucy and Ophelia in complete darkness. Lucy used one arm— using the other too hug Ophelia tightly —the Black heiress pulled out her wand.

"Luminous," She muttered and the tip of her wand glowed brightly. Lucy set her wand down next to them and pulled away from Ophelia. Lucy pulled back strands of her orange hair with her index fingers and used her thumbs to wipe still falling tears from Ophelia's face.

"What's wrong Ophelia?" Lucy cooed. Ophelia took a deep, shaky breath in through her nose and out through her mouth.

"Dr-Draco owled I-Imo Cissy ab-about me and George. She-She said my-my mum wouldhateme!" Ophelia sobbed into her hands. Lucy stilled.

"She said what?" Ophelia reached to her side and presented Lucy with a letter, all of it written in nearly Korean characters.

_Dearest Niece,_

_It has been brought to my attention that not only are you engaged in unladylike like behavior but it is with one of the sons of that blood traitor Arthur Weasley. Your mother would be disappointed. If she were here today she would be hurt by your actions. Though I must surmise if she were here today you wouldn't be, which should be the driving force behind all your actions, what would make your mother proud._

_To making the best decisions,_

_Lady Narcissa Malfoy_

While some characters on the parchment were smeared due to the tears Lucy understood what her cousin had written to Ophelia; which is why she crumpled the letter in the palm of her hand before looking sharply at Ophelia.

"Cissy's is wrong," Lucy said surely. "Your mother would love you no matter what."

"What if she's right?" Ophelia whimpered. "My mother married my father, what if—"

"Your mother married your father because she fell in love with him when they were kids not because she agreed with his politics."

"But what if—"

"Your mother loved you Ophelia, she wouldn't care who you fell in love with, just that you were happy."

"How can you be so sure?"

_Sunday Dinners with the Noble Black family were always more of a standoff then a happy family get together. Walburga Black sat at the head of the table. Reggie sat next to her on her right while Lucy sat between him and Claudia, who do to her and Reggies recent engagement had started joining the family. Her uncle sat parallel to her mother on the other end of the long tablr while her aunt sat to his left, her cousin Narcissa and her husband Lucius sat next to her while her other cousin Bellatrix to his right. Next to her was her husband Rodolphus, an angry looking man Lucy had never been fond of, and next to him was his brother, her cousin Araminta's husband, Rabastan while next to him, in the middle of the table, sat Araminta herself._

_Lucy liked Araminta out of all her cousins, she was kind and funny and never had any problem keeping Lucy away from her mother by having her spend the night while Reggie was at school; even if she had just gotten married. Six year old Lucy wasn't quite sure what Araminta having just gotten married had to do with how much she had Lucy over but apparently it had._

_"How goes it Bella?" Her mother wondered cooly. Lucy didn't fidget in her seat as her mother spoke even though her mother being in the same room as her caused her heart to beat erratically, though the muscles in her tiny legs did tension. Reggie flashed her a quite smile amd Claudia, beneath the table pat her hand affectionately._

_"Wonderful, our Lord has marked me personally to join his inner circle." Bellatrix puffed out her chest like being marked was something special. And perhaps it was._

_"He marked me as well Bellatrix," Rodolphus rumbled pleased._

_"What does that mean?" Lucy asked Bellatrix. "To be marked?"_

_"What have I told you about speaking?" Her mother snapped before either Rodolphus or Bellatrix could proudly proclaim just what being marked meant. Lucy flinched as Walburgas hand slapped against the dark wood of the table. Regulus' hand settled on his sisters knee resauringly._

_"Children are to speak when spoke to." Children are better seen not heard. Children are parasites who could at least make themselves useful after feeding off their mothers for ten months._

_"Then why open your mouth?"_

_"She was curious," Araminta spoke up in Lucy's defense, Araminta smiled kindly at Lucy, it was the kind of smile that told Lucy everything would be okay because she said it would be and Blacks were never wrong. Araminta rested her hand against her flat stomach. "I can only hope mine and Rabs child is half as curious."_

_The room seemed to still. Rabastan, unlike Araminta, didn't smile at the mention of his child. All he did was take hold of his wife's hand and stare at the table blankly._

_"You're pregnant?" Lucy's aunt Druella spoke. She didn't seem happy about the baby either. The only one who seemed happy about the baby was Araminta, and a smiling Lucy._

_"Nearly three months. A honeymoon baby." Araminta smiled brightly and why shouldn't she? Lucy thought, She'll make a terrific mother._

_"It will kill you," Bellatrix said sharply, she stood from her chair and looked at her sister lost. Lucy stopped smiling, she couldn't bear it if she lost Araminta._

_"It's my child."_

_"Get rid of it," Bellatrix commanded. Narcissa bowed her head to her mother's shoulder and Lucy looked at her lap to see Claudia had reached across Lucy and grabbed Reggie's hand tightly in her own._

_"No!" Araminta stood, as did Rab, though while Araminta stood to face her sister Rab stood and faced Araminta, his hands were clutching her elbows as Araminta peered over his shoulder. "How could you ask that of me?"_

_"Because it will kill you!" Bellatrix repeated. She too got to her feet. "Rabastan how can you let her do something so-so—" for once Bellatrix seemed to be at a loss of words._

_Rabastan turned his head half way and spoke to Bellatrix over his shoulder, "Since when have I ever been able to stop Araminta from doing something?" The sad smile on his face caused a young Lucy's heart to sink. Out of all her cousins husbands it had always been Rabastan to let her climb up on his shoulders, or bring her back a toy from wherever he had traveled to._

_"She is your wife!" Rabastan spun around to face Bellatrix in a way Lucy was sure no one would ever even dream about._

_"And she loves this baby more then me! More than her own life!"_

"Because you're her daughter," Lucy told Ophelia, "She had you knowing there was a chance she'd die because she loved you more than anything else in the whole world."

"Then wouldn't this hurt her more?" Lucy shook her head fondly,

"No because she was your mother and she loved you more than anything and if she were here today she'd tell you she loved you no matter what choices you made." A fresh batch of tears welled in Ophelia's eyes.

"You're sure?"

"More than anything. Now come on, I'll let you sleep on my couch so you don't murder Cissy's kid tomorrow morning." Ophelia let out a watery giggle.

* * *

**February 18, 1994**

Lucy, with permission from both Flitwick and Dumbledore, took Tahani Al Jamil back to her large countryside estate. As they walked up the large cobblestone steps to the front door Lucy heard the wicked voice in the back of her head, the one that reminded her far too much of her mother, sneer _This is nothing. Nothing compared to the Malfoy and certainly nothing compared to the Black estate._

Lucy ignored the voice and instead used the large brass knocker to knock against the door. She rested a hand against Tahani shoulder. Both of them were dressed in muggle clothing, Tahani wore a beautiful pink dress that stopped at her knees and Lucy, a deep purple pants suit Andre had sent her just for the occasion.

A maid, a white curly haired woman in a light blue uniform answered the door.

"Miss. Tahani," the maid blinked,

"Sofia," Tahani smiled,

"I didn't know—we weren't expecting you. Do your parents know you're coming?" For a second Tahani's shoulders sagged before perking right back up.

"Yes, though my Professor and I— Professor Black —we're only here for lunch. I mean what kind of preparations could be made for lunch?" The maid Sofia opened her mouth to say something before closing it.

"Your parents are in the sitting room," the maid said before shuffling to the side. Tahani looked up at Lucy, her hands wringing together nervously.

"I'd ask if you were ready but—"

"Then that would be like asking me if I were ready to go swimming with piranhas," Lucy joked.

"Yeah." Lucy, understandingly patted Tahani on the shoulder.

"Don't worry kid, I grew up with sharks." And off they went. Tahani led Lucy through the halls, all of which were nice but none of them held pictures of Tahani. Sure there were family pictures with the young witch off to the side but any pictures with just one child were of a girl, similar in looks to Tahani but not Tahani herself.

"Miss. Al Jamil?" Lucy asked, "Whos the girl in all these pictures?" Tahanis mouth screwed up tightly.

"My sister, Kamilah. Apple of my parents eyes," Tahani said bitterly and suddenly Lucy saw less of herself in the young girl and far more of her brothers, namely her eldest.

"_Isn't it Regulus? Apple of our dear mothers eye?"_

_"Little king— ha —your name means mama's boy."_

_A series of loud crashed echoed through his room and as Lucy listened in; "Why can't I do anything right! Regulus dose! All! The! Fucking! Time!"_

Lucy didn't comment, instead she let Tahani pick up the pace to the sitting room where two people, a somewhat balding man and a woman with far too much jewelry sat sipping tea as the young girl from the hall pictures played a song on a large piano.

If Kamilah or the Al Jamil parents noticed Lucy and Tahani open the door none of them reacted; Kamilah kept playing her song and her parents kept their undivided attention on her.

It was only after the young girl was done and her parents had clapped that they turned to Lucy and Tahani.

"Tahani," her mother smiled, her father got to his feet.

"You must be Professor Black." He stuck his hand out to shake, Lucy, with a Seeker grip shook it, the muscle in jaw jumped at her tight grip.

_A man can tell everything about you from just your handshake_, her father had told her before he died, _Don't let them think you a pushover._ Lucy wasn't about to let the Al Jamil's think they could push her, or their daughter around anymore.

"I am Waqas Al Jamil, this is my wife Manisha and of course," he motioned to the girl at the panic, "Our daughter Kamilah."

"Pleasure," Lucy said. She caught Mrs. Al Jamil eyeing Lucy's necklace, a turquoise and Samhain necklace that had been in the Black family vault since her ancestor stole it off a muggle Dutchess.

"Like I discussed in my letter, I want to talk to you both more about Tahani's talent on a broom. She's a natural. Already captain of the first year team."

"Yes you mentioned that—" Mr. Al Jamil motioned for Lucy to sit on the sofa across from him and his wife as Kamilah started a second piece. Tahani sat next to Lucy, her shoulders tense.

"Talented isn't she, our daughter Kamilah," Mrs. Al Jamil beamed. Lucy's nose twitched.

"I guess," she shrugged, "I was never that into music. My brother Regulus though, he loved it. Though I do suspect it was mainly due to his teachers."

"And who were they, anyone we would know?" Mr. Al Jamil asked backhandedly.

"Maybe, Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji? I know he died a few years ago but perhaps you've heard of him?"

"He was a wizard?" Tahani asked. Lucy smiled at the young witch. From the corner of her eye she noticed Mr. Al Jamil fidget in his seat.

"Some of the best people are," she told the girl.

"If you didn't like music what were your hobbies growing up?" Mrs. Al Jamil wondered thrown that Lucy, who in their eyes, equated a muggle netball coach, had grown up posh enough for her brother to take lessons from a famous composer.

"Sports. Quidditch."

"Professor Black is really good," Tahani beamed, "She's the youngest Seeker the Tornadoes ever took on."

"Seeker?" Mrs. Al Jamil blinked, "Tornadoes?" Tahani deflated.

"A Seeker is the position I play, Tahani here is a Chaser. The Seeker finds the snitch and the Chaser gets, and scores the Quaffle." No regiontion flittered over either Al Jamil parents. "The Tutshill Tornados were the team I played for." But parents nodded tensely. "But enough about me, back to Tahani, she's one of the most naturally gifted players I've seen."

"You're young," Mr. Al Jamil said, "Obviously you were good, why teach?"

Lucy knew she could tell the truth, but she also knew that then Tahani would never play Quidditch again. So she lied.

"The old Flying Professor, she was incredibly dear to me, helped get the scouts to my game and launch my career, she got married this year and took a year long honeymoon. When the Headmaster asked me at her instance, well who am I to turn down Albus Dumbledore?"

"I'm sure you made far more as a Quit-it—" Mr. Al Jamil said,

"—Quidditch—" Lucy correctly without missing a beat,

"—player. Even if this Dumbledore asked surely the money would be enough to turn it down."

"No not really. I'm the soul heiress to the largest magical fortune in all of Great Britain so money isn't what's usually on my mind." Neither Al Jamil parent had expected that. Kamilah began a third piece.

"And you work?" Tahanis mother asked as she raised a tea cup to her mouth.

"I'd go crazy sitting at home all day doing nothing productive," Lucy said snidely with a grin, "I mean who wouldn't?"

"And you see talent in our Tahani?" The woman asked.

"Not that it matters," her husband cut in, "Tahani needs real world skills, not some silly sport."

"Captaining provides all sorts of real world skills, it helps leadership and—"

"I meant real world skills. Skills Tahani will use in the actual world, not the silly little world she's in now." Lucy's mouth feel open, Tahani sucked in a deep breath.

_Muggles_, the voice crowed, _Scum of the Earth, vile creatures._

"The world Tahani is in is the real world Mr. Al Jamil, just because you aren't special enough to be privy to it doesn't make it any less real," Lucy sneered. The man's face turned a deep red.

"Special—Now hold your tongue!" He got to his feet. Lucy did too, she wasn't about to let some man intimate her. Especially a muggle man.

"I will not, it's true—"

"Tahani go to your room! You're finished at this freak school!" Tahani froze, as did Lucy though for a completely different reason. Tahani, Lucy knew, froze because she was about to lose Hogwarts, Lucy froze because she had grown up reading about obscuri.

"That will kill her!" The defiant gleam in Mr. Al Jamil's eye was all Lucy needed to pull her wand and point it at the man. Suddenly Lucy could see how her ancestors could curse a helpless muggle into the grave and cherry pick their belongings. She of course knew it wasn't all muggles but still—the Dursley's, The Al Jamil's, _her own mother, _she was so sick of people mistreating kids.

"Do not test me Mr. Al Jamil, I am not a woman to be trifled with. Come on Tahani, it's time we get back to the school," Lucy growled with an outstretched hand. Tahani, looking at her mother and then her sister rose to her feet and took Lucy's hand.

"She is my daughter—"

"Perhaps, but truthfully that means jack shit." And then with a pop they were no longer standing in the Al Jamil's sitting room but rather a Hogsmeade Ally.

Tahani looked up at Lucy and her lip shook violently. She threw herself against Lucy, who hugged her tightly as her shoulders shook with sobs.

"Come on now Tahani, Everything will be okay."

"No it won't," she sobbed, "My father thinks I'm a freak, he hates me!" He did, and like usual in those situations Lucy wasn't quite sure what she should say so instead she just hugged the eleven year old tighter.

_Everything will be okay_, Lucy thought, _Because I'll make it so._

* * *

**February 19, 1994**

Perhaps sending a Cupid-dwarf to harass the potions master wasn't the greatest idea for petty revenge. _Perhaps I should have strangled him_ Lucy thought darkly. Both she and the Potions Master stood on opposite ends of Dumbledores office, the bearded headmaster sat at his desk and both Draco Malfoy and Marcus Flint sat across from the old wizard.

Draco Malfoy glared at Flint from the corner of his eyes. Marcus Flint was dressed in his Quidditch robes because at Lucy's instruction he had begun to look for a new Seeker.

"He endangered the lives of fourteen students!" Lucy snapped, she glared at the greasy man, "He needs to learn that will not be tolerated!"

"A school yard prank," Snape sniped. Lucy sucked in a deep breath, she had better things to do then have to contest the petion the Slytherin Head of House had made to get the blonde boy back on the team, espically because as flying instructor she could do whatever she wanted when it came to the teams!

"That could have gotten somwone killed!"

"And he had is serving two weeks detention."

Lucy opened her mouth to tell Snape just what she thought of having to face the lose of fifty house points and two weeks dention after a stunt like that when Dumbledore coughed. Both Lucy and Snape looked to the Headmaster.

"I have a compromise." Lucy felt anger and bitterness swell up inside her like a ballon. She was the Flying Instructor, she had no more a right to tell Snape on how to stur a potion then he did on the happenings of her pitch! "Mr. Malfoy will maintain his spot as Slytherin house Seeker-" Lucy's balled fist twitched when Cissy's faught back a smile, "-But he will be suspended for the next game."

Snape looked about as happy as Lucy at the compromise. Lucy could see the Potions Master bite his tongue.

"Very well Headmaster," he hissed. Dumbledore turned to Lucy who looked at Draco Malfoy whos eyes glimmered dangerously with victory. Lucy was well awear that not all children became their parents but he was on his way to becoming Lucius Malfoy the second and all it made the ex-Seeker want to do is scream.

"Alright."

* * *

**February 21, 1994**

Remus Lupin was half delirious, he had a fever of thirty eight celsius, he had been sweating like a pig for hours and he groaned in pain whenever he had to move, but he wasn't sick. Or so he had sworn when he opened the door to see Lucy and her basket of soup and crackers.

Lucy kneeled next to his bed, a damp washcloth in her had as she dabbed at the sweat on his head. His skin was a sickly pale color and the circles under his eyes were dark. Remus turned and smiled hazily up at her. His eyes were unfocused and his hair continuously got stuck to the front of his forehead no matter how many time Lucy brushed it back.

"You're amazing Lucy," he said in awe, he grinned stupidly at her that made her smile right back.

"I'm amazing why? Cause I'm mopping up your sweat?" Lucy snorted, "Anyone would do it if you let them Remus. You're an amazing bloke."

Remus made a sound of disagreement in the back of his throat, "No I'm not. I'm—"

"Morgan's left tit. So help me Lupin if you say you're a monster I'll smother you with your own pillow," Lucy said lightly.

"Couch pillow or bed pillow?" He wondered in a tired voice, his eyes starting to close.

"Bed," Lucy laughed, "I wouldn't want to it to seem too much like premeditation." Remus shot Lucy a second sickly, this one more feeble and tired-smile that still made her heart swoon despite the fact he looked terrible.

"I-I gotta tells you something," his slurred half asleep. Lucy leaned in.

"Anything."

"I really-re-really like you," he told her before slipping out of consciousness. Lucy stayed kneeling for a few moments, just watching Remus' chest rise then fall before breathing deeply.

"I really-really like you too Remus."

* * *

**A/N: MEMBER TO COMMENT!**


	9. March 1994 - chapter nine

**March 1, 1994**

_Lucretia Black was fourteen when she has to break up her first Weasley-Prewett family fight; it'd been between Ron and Meiri, both of whom were five and usually attached at the hip, smiling and whispering to each other in their own made up language no one else was allowed to know._

_"You're a poopy head!" Meiri cried at Ron; the pair of them were in the burrows living room, a broken toy laid on the floor between them. Four year old Ginny sat on the couch looking on at the two of them excitedly. Her eyes shining the same way the twins always did._

_"Me? You're a Frogs Fart!" Ron shot back, his tiny fists clenched at his side._

_"Hey!" Lucy called out, though not loud enough to get the attention of Mrs. Weasley who was picking from her garden outside; two glasses of iced tea still in her hands. "What's going on here?"_

_Both Ron and Meiri, and Ginny, all look up at Lucy. Meiri points a stuppy index finger at Ron, her ginger braids coming undone in the summer humidity. Fires red curls springing to life as they escaped the tightly done braids._

_"He broke my Morgana doll!"_

_"It's an action figure and no I didn't!" Ron shot back, he pointed a finger at Meiri, "She's saying I broke her toy and calling me mean names when I didn't!"_

_Lucy opened her mouth only to be cut off my Meiri; "Because you did!" Meiri stomped her foot and Ginny grinned as Ron pouted. Lucy looked at the mischievous four year old and noted she seemed to be having far too much fun at her cousin and brothers expense._

_"Meiri did you see Ron break your toy?" Lucy wondered._

_"No, but he did!" Lucy sighed._

_"Ron, to be fair you did call her a frogs fart too."_

_"Because she called me a poopy head for breaking her toy! Which I didn't!" He added scathingly before Meiri could claim he had admitted it._

_"Yes you did!"_

_"No!" Lucy leaned back through the archway that lead from the living room to the kitchen and spotted Mrs. Weasley with her back to the window as the picked her spinach._

_Lucy kneeled down and set the two glasses on the floor next to her; she held her finger out, waggling it at every word. "None of you tell your mother alright?"_

_The Weasley-Prewett children nodded and Lucy held her hand out; "Give me the toy." Meiri handed Lucy the second hand Morgana and its severed arm._

_The arm had been pulled out at the socket; each child leaned forward, they each expected Lucy to pull her wand from her hair and show them magic— "Underaged wizards can't preform magic outside of Hogwarts," Charlie had once said. It was Lucy's first summer at the Burrow. Lucy grinned at the nine year old boy and then at Bill who grinned back._

_"My Great Grandfather is the one who wrote that rule. It's all in the wording Charlie, techically any underaged witch or wizard in the presence of a muggle can't preform underaged magic. He did this to penalize muggleborns and half-bloods— the old cod —but purebloods? They can use magic just fine as long as they're home-why are you laughing?"_

_"You said penalize!" —only to be disappointed when she easily popped the arm back into the toy._

_"Tadah!" Lucy grinned. She handed Meiri back the toy, "Now apologize to Ron for accusing him of breaking your toy and calling him a poopy head."_

_Meiri hugged the toy to her chest, "I'm sorry for calling you a poopy head. And saying you broke my toy."_

_"It's alright. Lucy fixed it."_

_"Now Ginny apologize for framing Ron." Ginny's mouth fell open, scandalized Lucy would rat her out while both Ron and Meiri mouth fell open shocked that Ginny would do such a thing._

_"Ginny!" They cried._

Lucy was twenty three when she stopped Meiri from strangling Ron outside the Great Hall. Theo Nott stood behind Meiri, who had both her hands raised as she clenched and unclenched her fists, and Hermione and Harry stood to the side, more towards the middle as red krept up Ron's neck. The large group of students— Slytherin and Hufflepuffs, and a handful of some Gryffindors —that surrounded them whispered excitedly wondering if the far too kind Hufflepuff girl would hit her cousin.

The Hogwarts population— students, Professors, ghosts and portraits —had long ago learned that there was no kind of fight light a Weasley fight.

"You are such a git Ronald Weasley! I swear to Merlin I'm going to murder you!"

"Woah!" Lucy said, "Let's not do that." Harry, Theo and Hermione all sigh harmoniously at the sight of her, "Thank heavens," Hermione muttered. The other students, with their heads down, quickly scattered into the Great Hall.

"Then tell Ronald he's not my father!"

"Tell Meiri she can't hang out with blood obsessed Slytherins! May as well hang out with Malfoy!" Ron told his cousin as he glared over her shoulder and Theo Nott who looked anywhere but at the ginger Gryffindor. Lucy stepped between the two before Meiri could lunge at him, her teeth clenched together and the vein on the left side of her head throbbing.

She looks just like Mrs. Weasley, Lucy mused.

"Alright, alright. Theo, Harry, Hermione, please take Meiri into the Great Hall and calm her down," Lucy nudged Meiri into Theos arms, which circled around her shoulders. Lucy could practically see the steam coming from Ron's pinkened ears. "Ron we can eat in the kitchens or something-come on." Lucy grabbed Ron by his shoulder of his robes dragged him down a series of corridors, only to slow down when they got to the mouth of dungeons.

"Why am I in trouble?" Ron cried as he follows her, two steps behind.

"Geeze I don't know, you're only being a prick."

"She's the one hanging out with Malfoys friend! He's a Nott!" Lucy let go of Ron's robes and faces him, her arms crossed over her chest and a brow raised unimpressed.

"I'm a Black." The pair of them stop in front of a grandiose painting of fruit.

"That's different!"

"No it's not."

"Of course it is, you're you!"

"I don't see the difference Ron."

"It is!" Ron insisted. "How can Meiri be his friend? Last year when Malfoy and Hermione the m-word Nott was there and he didn't say anything! You would have! I've heard him say that word before, you haven't!"

_"You're a Weasley?" Ten, almost eleven, year old Lucy Black wondered as she and a gangly ginger boy in shabby clothing sat in the scarlet trains compartment. His short hair was wild and there were dirt and grass stains littering his pants and cuffs of his shirt. Her and legs were crossed and her hands were settled in her lap. Her hair was pulled up in a tight bun and her expensive clothing was immaculate. The pair screamed oopit ends of the economic spectrum._

_"Yeah, and?" The boy, William— "Call me Bill" —shot back guarded. His bushy brows raised as the train began to pull out of the station._

_"Nothing," Lucy started off shyly, her cheeks pink, "It's just, your father, he likes muggles doesn't he? That has to be cool, doesn't it?" Lucy wondered intrigued, she leant forward in her seat, in a very unladylike like fashion, and smiled at Bill, who smiled back at her._

_"Yeah He does, he heads his department—I mean of course it's just him and two other blokes but still! Sometimes he'll bring things home from work—he keeps everything in shed, mum doesn't want it cluttering the house. Last week he brought a Phellyphone."_

_"What's that?" The train entered a dark tunnel leading them out of London, the compartment, if not for the flickering candle light above the door, would have become enveloped in darkness._

_"It lets muggles talk to each other, like we do with howlers, only at the same time," Bill explained the same way his father had when Charlie asked what a phellyphone was. Lucy's brows shot up in near disbelief, and her mouth fell open in astonishment._

_"That's awesome. Mudbloods are so lucky—"_

_"—Don't say that word!" Bill shouted enraged, pressing himself back into the velvet of the seat cushion. His mouth open in horror and the tips of his ears reddened. Lucy frowned in confusion,_

_"What word?" She blink at him._

_"That word! The M-one!"_

_"Mud—Er," Lucy stopped when she saw Bills sharp glare, "Well then what do you suppose I call them then?"_

_"Don't pull my leg!" Lucy blinked again,_

_"I'm not! If you don't want me calling them that then what do I call them?" This time Bill blinked._

_"You're serious?" Lucy opened her mouth to point out that no she was Lucy, her brother was Sirius, but then closed it, Now's not the time, she reasoned. Instead she nodded._

_"I bet you think people people with one muggle parent and one magical are called half breeds then, right?" Bill wondered._

_"They aren't are they?" Lucy frowned._

_"No they aren't, they're called half-bloods. And kids with no magical parents are muggle borns. What you said is a very very bad word. Where'd you even hear it from?"_

_Everyone, Lucy wanted to say, her mother and cousins and aunts and uncles and even Regulus. Instead she turned to the window and looked out into darkness and shrugged._

_"Just heard it," she muttered feeling foolish, if her family had used that word she should have known it was an evil one to use._

_"Hey," Bill said frowning, Lucy turned to him and he smiled gently at her, "Now you know." Lucy smiled back at him and nodded,_

_"Yeah—so muggleborn, alright —so tell me more about your dad's job. Like I was saying, muggleborns are lucky, they get to experience both magical and muggle worlds. Merlin knows how fun that must be."_

Lucy sighed deeply, "Yes Ron, I have." Ron looked up at Lucy startled, horrified at the confession; as if she had admitted to helping him into the castle.

"What?"

"Before Bill explained it to me I thought that's what muggleborns were called—Theo did too. Meiri told me all about it; she explained it to him last year, on why he can't use that word but Ron. He's the same way I was when I was your age; he's trying to be better. Mairi's helping him by being his friend."

"But he's Malfoys friend! How do we know its not a joke? That he's not going to hurt Meiri!" Ron demanded to know.

"Ron, Meiri and Theo have been friends since the start of your first year—" Rons mouth opened as he gaped like fish, "—I doubt Cissys spawn has the patience or the brain to pull off a long con such as that. Besides, from what I've seen of them Theo dose care for her. She's his best friend."

"You're sure?"

"Yes. I mean, ask your mother if you don't believe me."

"What's mum got to do with this?"

"She's been making that boy sweaters and fudge the past three years," Lucy snorted.

"What!"

* * *

**March 5, 1994**

Lucy and Remus as they patrolled the castle once more, talking about the the the idea of introducing a registry in France due to the large Veela population.

"Its disgusting!" Lucy had said, "Putting them on a registry, forcing them to put their names and addresses, it doesn't help them, it just puts them in danger!"

"It's not much different from the werewolf registry here," Remus said dryly, stuffing his hands in his pockets. Lucy glared at the ground.

"Remind me to blackmail Wizengamot into repealing that bloody thing, will you?" She said seriously, though not as seriously as she could have because Remus snorted.

"You're not blackmailing anyone," he chided humorously, his elbow jutting out and hitting her own.

"Says who? You?" Lucy grinned. The pair of them turned the corner expecting to see a corridor of darkness, and not two Slytherin boys with their wands pointed at one another.

"—blood traitor!" Lucy's ears perked up at voice of her cousins son. He can't stay out of trouble for a single bloody moment can he? She growled mentally.

"Rather be a blood traitor then a sniveling sack of shit like you Malfoy!" The second boy spat venomously. That's Theo Nott, Lucy thought somewhat shocked.

"What is going on here?" Remus asked sharply, both boys turned to Lucy and Remus. Where Draco looked panicked at the prospect of getting in trouble again Theodore Nott looked more annoyed at being interrupted than anything.

"Nothing sir," Theo obviously lied to Lucy and Remus. Remus' left brow raised,

"Is that so, Mr. Nott? Then tell me why you and Mr. Malfoy are out past curfew?"

"Nott challenged me to a duel Professor!" Malfoy cried innocently. Lucy glared at the young teen.

"Then I'm sure you're happy we stepped in before Mr. Nott here could wipe the floor with you," Lucy said. Even in the dark corridor Lucy could see the boys pale face flush red. Theo bit back a smile while Remus nudged his elbow at her side.

"What?" Lucy threw her hands out in front of her, palm up and shoulders raised.

"You can't say that," Remus muttered.

"Where in the rulebook does it say I can't?" Lucy shot back, she turned to the boys. She looked at Theo who though, wore an impressive deadpan look on his face, giving away nothing, eyes burned brightly under the corridors dim candle light.

"Why did you challenge Mr. Malfoy to a duel?" She asked the boy. She saw Theos mouth open slightly before shutting, only to open again a few seconds later.

"He called Meiri names," Theo said, the fire in his eyes roaring brightly to life as his lips pinched together more tightly. Lucy glared at Malfoy from the corner of her eye.

_Cissy should have sent him to Durmstrang,_ Lucy thought.

"Names?"

"Mean names," Theo gave, his arms crossed over his chest. Lucy was sharply reminded of one of the times Professor McGonagall had found her in the corridors after curfew.

_Stebbins, an older boy, who earlier that day had loudly, in the school courtyard, gone on about how poor, and how dirty, and how big a bunch of blood traitors the Weasleys were— along with calling them a few other nasty names —was on the floor belly up, his arms out straight on either side of him. He wore a dazed expression on his face as new pimples emerged from his skin and one of his front teeth grew well past his belt buckle. The other one was on the other end of the corridor._

_"Miss. Black!" The Deputy Headmistress said sharply, looking down at the girl, "What have you done!" Fourteen year old Lucy looked at Stebbins and then at McGonagall and shrugged, she ignored the pain in her right hand. Professor Sinistra tended to Stebbins, stopping his teeth from containing to grow past his knees and levitating him off the hard floor._

_"Taught him lesson ma'am. I figured a wonderful instructor such as yourself would be able to get that." McGonagall turned red, the same color of Bills hair and the Gryffindor banner._

_"I'm taking Mr. Stebbins here to the Hospital Wing Minerva," Sinestra said._

_"Very well Aurora," McGonagall nodded before turning back to Lucy. Lucy glared evil at the boy as the Astronomy Professor lead the stumbling sixth year away. A dark voice sounding strangely like her mothers crowed in the back of her mind, the words echoing deeply in her chest, You could have done worse, should have shown him what it means to truffle with a Black._

_"You—Why Miss. Black?"_

_"He called Bill and Charlie names ma'am," Lucy said blankly. The dark monster that reside inside of her roared deafeningly as she thought about the names Stebbins had called the Weasleys. Her throat tightened and she thought, in a voice that sounded less like her mothers and more like her own;_

_I should have killed him for what he said._

_"Names?" McGonagall echoed._

_"Nasty names ma'am."_

"What kind of mean names?" Lucy asked curiously, she glared at her cousin's son.

"Lucy dose that matter?" Remus wondered.

"Of course it does Remus, sometimes a duel is the only way to settle things—though if it were duel shouldn't you both have seconds?"

Theo Nott smirked. He looked down at his shoes and then up at Lucy. "I said not to involve seconds, I told Malfoy there was no need for me to hurt anyone else." Lucy bit her tongue and looked at the dark ceiling. She knew she wasn't supposed to approve of behavior such as that but part of her wanted to laugh and slap the boy on the back in a congratulatory way.

The Weasley-Prewett's really know how to pick us, Lucy mused mentally. First her then Mia, then Ophelia and Harry and now Nott. It's a Weasley right of passage at this point, she giggled inwardly, Picking a broken dark haired kids willing to duel to the death at the first slight made at our friends.

"See he threatened me Professor!" Draco cried to Remus who looked sharply at Lucy.

Can you not find this amusing? He asked wordless, his eyes wide and jaw stiff. We're supposed to be the adults here.

Sorry, she responded by taking her front teeth over her bottom lip.

No you're not. His eyes narrowed and lips pressed together outwards.

No I'm not. Lucy timidly smiled.

"Alright so I guess fifty points from Slytherin?" Lucy asked as she looked at Remus. "Fourty for threading another student and ten for bad mouthing another student."

"Ten points, I'm the victim here! I was threatened!"

"Mr. Malfoy you not only instigated the duel, you're out past curfew, Professor Lupin and I could give you a detention be happy we're not and take the deduction of points," Lucy said sprucely.

"Yes ma'am," Draco Malfoy ground out, practically choking on the respectful title.

"Now come on boys, back to your common room," Lucy as she ushered Theo to follow Malfoy as he stomped towards the Slytherin common room turned to Remus whos shoulder brushed against hers and leaned in to him,

"Merlin I hate Malfoy," she muttered. The corner of his lip quirked up,

"I'm sure most of the wizards got population is in agreement with you."

* * *

_March 8, 1994_

As per usual the weather in Scotland was less than disable; clouds moved across the sky the way waves move across the ocean, obstructing the warm March sun. Lucy and Tahani, both wearing heavy, fur lined cloaks, walked around the lake the edge of the Black lake; Tahani lightly kicking every other rock that happened in her path. Lucy buried her nose in the honey colored scarf she had borrowed from Remus before looking down at the smaller witch.

"Professor McGonagall says you're a wiz at Transfiguration," Lucy punned with her brows raised expectantly, a small smile on her face. Her mittened hands were stuffed deeply into the pocket of her cloak. Tahani bit back her smile,

"That was terrible ma'am." Lucy snorted.

"It was gold, you just don't appreciate my humor," Lucy teased. Tahani smiled for a moment, briefly as a rush of wind blew past them, only to stop as the wind did. The pair continued to walk in silence listening to the trees of the Forbidden Forest rustle almost violently.

Ever since the pair had made it back from visiting the Al Jamil household Lucy had made it her mission to take Tahani under her wing whether it was eating lunch on Tuesdays at her desk with Ginny as all three of them talked Quidditch or Sunday walks around the large lake.

"My father wrote me," Tahani said suddenly, her voice small and a far off, unfocused look over took her face. "He said not to come home for the holidays."

"He did?" Lucy felt her hands curl in her pockets. Tahani nodded.

"They're leaving a week before we even end for break so it's okay. Besides, mother and him, and Kamilia, they're going to Australia for the holidays and well-" Tahani forced a laugh, "Who wants to go there?"

"It's okay to be hurt Tahani," Lucy said softly.

"Why would I be hurt? My family has a perfectly responsible, valid, explanation for not wanting me to spend a holiday with them."

Lucy's heart yearned for the young witch. She understood what it was like to make excuses— if Regulus hadn't died and their mother hadn't gone crazy she would have loved her properly —and it hurt. It hurt to see such a bright young girl whos family should love her not.

"I'll be having Easter in my quarters," Lucy said, "You're free to join us if you'd like." Tahani looked at Lucy with a raised brow.

"You're inviting me out of pity, because I won't be with my family."

Lucy chuckled, "No Tahini. I'm inviting you to spend Easter with me and the Weasleys and Harry Potter- and Professors Sprout and Lupin and Madam Pomfrey and probably Hagrid -because I like you."

"You do?" Tahani asked with her chin tipped up ever so slightly, pride gleamed in her eyes as Lucy smiled down at her.

"Course I do, you fly nearly as well as I did at your age."

…

Lucy stood in the middle of the Defense room later that night, sweat beaded down her forehead as Remus, across the room, once more locked the trunk, shutting away the boggart.

What had once taken on the form of her mother promising Lucy that one day she'd be like her, only to then be Bill accusing her of being like her mother was now, like it had for Harry Potter, taken on the form a dementor.

"Good try," Remus encouraged Lucy as she turned to face her. Lucy groaned loudly as she slumped to the floor gracefully, her knees folding under her in a single fluid motion.

"Don't lie to me!" She said as she cupped her face in her hands. Remus walked over to her and kneeled next to her before slowly reclining to sit on her left. His thumb brushed soothingly over her knee.

"I'm not lying, it was a very good try. You managed to get some wisps out this time." Lucy grimaced; this time she had used the memory Dora ranting about her mother telling her to stay away from Lucy. Dora had been eleven and Lucy thirteen and despite only knowing one another for a few short months Dora had exclaimed; "You're family, she can't just tell me who I can and can't talk to!" It had been the first time in years someone called her family.

Which was why the memory had failed; just like each and every other memory Lucy had chosen she quickly remembered why the memory meant so much to her.

Bill hugging her promising not to leave her meant so much because he was the only person she had left; her mother was crazed and only one of her two brother was still alive, and that did not meant much because he was a mass murderer.

Getting onto the Tornadoes meant so much for her because she was finally able to define herself outside of her family. She was Lucy Black Seeker-extranare, not Lucy Black sister to You-Know-Whos right hand man.

Dora calling her family had meant to much to her because she had no other family. Reggie was dead and he was in prison and during her third year her mother, like a deranged toddler, was having bout of accidental magic that more often than not cause Lucy to end up with a new scar.

"I'm never going to get it," Lucy whispered harshly to herself.

"Hey," Remus chided gently, his thumb and index finger lifted her chin up so she was no longer glaring at the gloddy wood floor and instead looking at him. "You will get this."

"How? Everytime I think of something good I remember the bad."

"Maybe don't try a memory," Remus told her, his hand moved from her chin to her cheek to her forehead where he moved moist strands of hair away from her face.

"What do you mean don't try a memory?"

"I mean, maybe you shouldn't think about the memory itself. Maybe try to think about the feeling you have when you remember the memory. The happiness you experience; focus on that," Remus explained. Lucy sucked in a deep breath and gripped her wand tightly.

"Yeah," she nodded, "Okay. Let's try."

* * *

_Match 10, 1994_

The sun hadn't even peaked half way up through the forests trees when Lucy, with a German chocolate cake in her hands and a thick, horribly wrapped— incredibly indecent given her company —present under her arms, met with Professors McGonagall, and Sprout, Madam Pomfrey and Hagrid in the Great Hall, the four of them chattered excitedly as they each clutched their own presents; the cloud of balloons Sprout had been tasked were bringing were tied around her wrist while the schools matron had the bucket of glitter confetti Lucy as asked her to bring.

"Morning!" Lucy grinned excitedly,

"Morning Lucy!" Professor Sprout beamed, bouncing on the balls of her feet as her large flowery hat tipped forward and the brim shielded her eyes. Madam Pomfrey snorted at her wifes jubilation and with the pad of her index finger tilted the hat up.

"Do calm down deary," Pomfrey cooed, Lucy felt her heart warm at their interaction, part of her— the part that wasn't mortified at becoming her parents —yearned for a love so soft yet relisant that after forty years the world could look upon her and whomever she'd chosen to love and melt. She turned to Hagrid and McGonagall, both of whom, in good nature, rolled their eyes at the pair.

"So?" Lucy wondered conversationally, "What'd you get him?"

"The newest Defense book on Dark Wizards, there's a few passages that mention him," McGonagall said, Lucy's eyebrows shot up, McGonagall turned to Pomfrey and Sprout, "Hurry up will you two." She said in her usual kind professor voice as she lead the five of them towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts room.

"I got 'i'm a new cane, made it myself I did," Hagrid beamed proudly as she presented Lucy with a lovely handcrafted cane. The wood was a polished oak and the handle had been whittled to resemble the head of a lion. Lucy's mouth feel slack for a moment,

"Hagrid this is—" her voice trailed off, "—This is amazing, true craftsmanship," she said after a moment of marvling. Hagrid, though Lucy couldn't see under both the darkness and his thick beard, turned a bright pink.

"Well, I-—er, thank you," Hagrid swallowed as they turned the corner to the Defense room.

"You're welcome," Lucy beamed as McGonagall turned to them and quietly shushed them with a finger to her thin lips. THe Deputy Headmistress pushed open the classroom door and lead them towards the back of the room, up the stairs and into the office where she took the cake from Lucy.

A very Gryffindor gleam glimmered in the Transfiguration Professor eyes. "We'll set up out here, you go wake the birthday man up." Lucy wasn't sure why— nothing sored had been said or implied —but she blushed heavily and ducked her head.

Professor Sprout and Madam Pomfrey giggled as Hagrid clamped his palm against his mouth letting only a throaty rumble escape from him.

Avoiding the gazes of the other Hogwarts staff members, even as she took the bucket of glitter from Madam Pomfrey, Lucy, still with her present under her arm, quietly snuck into Remus Lupins room, the only sound filling the small staff apartment was the werewolves deep sores. Lucy smiled at the sound and crept towards his bed where Remus Lupin, in only a pair of large, low hanging pajama bottoms laid on his back, his arms stretched out and a small smile on his face.

After having set her present on the floor besides the bed Lucy carefully maneuvered herself on top of him, her legs on either side of the sleeping werewolf, a wicked grin spread across her face as she held the bucket of glitter over him.

"Remus," she cooed, leaning down, her hot breath fanning against his ear. His eyebrows twitched. "Remus, wake up. It's your birthday." Remus let out a groan; Lucy moved so her lips skimmed the side of his face, down his jaw and across his throat. Remus moaned.

"Remus, wake up." Again he groaned and his nose twitched but he did not wake up. Lucy, with a wicked grin then tipped the bucket forward allowing a mountain of multicolored glitter to fall heavily on his face. Sputtering the werewolf shot up, knocking a giggling Lucy on her back onto his knees.

"Merlin's mot—Lucy!" Remus weazed wiping the glitter from his face vigorously. Lucy taking a sharp breath in between her laughter beamed at the werewolf, who glared at her. Lucy, with a soft look and melted smiled, sat back up and brushed some sparkling glitter off of cheek. Her arms then rested lazily against his shoulders, her fingers linking together behind his head..

"Happy Birthday Remus," she to him, pecking his lips. Remus cupped her cheek and deepened the kiss only for it to be cut short when he scooped a handful of glitter up in his other hand and dumped it on her head causing a shrieking roar of laughter to burst from the Quidditch instructor. Remus locked Lucy tighter in his arms as she tried to squirm away from him; his lips peppering ticklish kisses along her neck.

A loud thumping knock came from the door before it cracked open, Professor Sprouts face peaked half way through the open door before sighing and opening the door fully, a smile on her withering face.

"Professor Sprout!" Remus straightened, his skin flushing pink as he all but knocked Lucy off his bed.

"How many times do I have to tell the both of you, it's Pomona," the Herbology professor chortled, "Happy birthday Remus."

"Oh—er—thank you Prof—Pomona?" Remus said with narrowed eyes and a crack in his voice. Professor Sprout snorted.

"Can you please hurry up we're starving out here," Madam Pomfrey giggled.

"Madam Pomfrey's out there?" Remus asked, looking between Lucy and Professor Sprout.

"And McGonagall and Hagrid and the german chocolate cake I got you," Lucy listed off.

"Well then if there's cake we better not keep everyone waiting," Remus suggested.

"Alright but before you do—" Lucy leaned over and grabbed her present to him from the floor. She turned to Professor Sprout and asked, "We'll be out in a second, swear it." Remus took the flimsy blue wrapping paper from Lucy.

Sprout raised a thin eyebrow at Lucy but conceded wordlessly as she shut the door. Remus began to open the present only to immediately stop; Lucy, pink in the face looked at the present Dora had helped her pick and then through her eyelashes she looked up at Remus because in his lap, still half in the wrapping was lingerie. Lacy, dark purple lingerie that was mostly see through. Remus looked at the fabric and then at Lucy;

"I thought," she explained somewhat shly, "After dinner you'd like to see me in that. And out of it." Remus' lips parted and his tongue darted out to wet them.

"Just—just because it's my birthday Lucy, it doesn't mean—"

"I know that," Lucy cut him off, "I want to though." Remus shot her a measured look, thumbing the purple lace, a small smile on his face as he pressed a chastise kiss to her lips.

"You're allowed to change your mind at anytime today," Remus told her, his hot breath fanned against her lips.

"I know," Lucy told him pecking his lips once more before moving off of him, her feet hitting the floor, "BUt I won't."

* * *

**March 12, 1994**

"Who the fuck wants to see me now?" Lucy muttered to herself, already in her pajamas. It was twenty minutes to curfew and after overseeing the Ravenclaw-Slytherin first year training, the Hufflepuff Quidditch team and Ginny Weasley's practice, along with her own and having to listen to Burbage rant about her idiot NEWT students because everyone else had scattered when she had arrived in the teachers lounge, all Lucy wanted to do was sleep for the next ten years.

"I swear to Merlin if that's you Snape I don't care—oh, Harry?" Lucy blinked at the lone boy. It was strange to see him without either Meiri or Ron by his side. Lucy took in the boys small demeanor, his hunched shoulders and his the dismal look in his eyes, "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah—uh, can I come in Professor?" Harry blinked.

"Of course," Lucy ushered the boy in, she closed the door behind him, "Not that I mind you being here Harry, but why are you here?" Lucy wondered as she made her way to her chair. Harry didn't follow to take a seat on one of the stools and instead stood in the middle of the office shifting his weight as he opened and closed his mouth fishing for the right words.

"Sirius Black," Harry said suddenly, producing a picture of a wedding where the man next to his father, clapping the darker skinned man on the back and jumping up to kiss his messy head, was her eldest brother. "I can't sleep knowing my father's best friend betrayed him."

Lucy gently took the photo from Harry and looked at it, her eyes glued to her grinning brother, _He never smiled like that when we were kids,_ Lucy thought.

"I have few memories of Sirius, he left the house when I was five," Lucy said, Harry took a seat across from her as her eyes never wavered from her brother, "He'd been the first person in all of the Black line to not be sorted into Slytherin—I wasn't even one when that happened, but I suppose that's when the rift began. He was learning all these controversial ideals—" Lucy snorted, "Muggleborns are equal to us purebloods, Merlin that used to be what he said to rile my mother up; better, he'd say, because they don't marry their cousins." Lucy could remember how their mother, after one of the times he'd said that in the presence of company, had thrown a dish at him when they'd left.

"But then he joined Voldemort," Harry said darkly. Lucy nodded mute.

"When he'd been arrested I got pulled into the Headmasters office, I don't think it was the fact he joined up that shocked me— everyone did back then, if you weren't in hiding you were one of his, most of the people who joined did it because they were forced to, either by force or under threat— Merlin it wasn't even the mass murder that shocked me."

"Then what did shock you?" Harry wondered.

"It was the fact your dad died. That him and that Pettigrew boy had been killed. Growing up he used to tuck me into bed, and instead of reading me bedtime stories from books he used to tell me all about the things he and his friends got up too. Jamie did this and Jamie caused that—"

"Then why'd he betray them!" Harry exploded, the stool toppled over at the force in which he stood up.

"Because, I suppose, he grew up with my mother and father as parents."

"So did you." With a wave of her wand the stool was once more upright and Harry and sat down again.

"No I didn't," Lucy said. "My father died right before my seventh birthday, he'd been sick for years so he'd never been much of a parent to me. And my mother, well," Lucy smiled cruelly down at her arms which, under her long pajama top, held a collection of scars, "I had another brother, Regulus, he was two years younger then—" Lucy coughed, "—He was pretty open about joining up, him and my cousin Bellatrix— the bloody basket case —both thought it was an honor and well, he died when I was nine. After that my mother lost it. Before that I suppose my mother was around to make sure I was punished properly," Lucy said sarcastically. Harry's brows and mouth twitched but he held back any questions he had, "And made sure I attended my lessons and learned the family tree and other things a proper Black child should know," Lucy drawled. "But I was never the the child she spent time with. After all, after he ran away Regulus was supposed to be the next Head of House, I was never meant to take the title Lady Black."

"So that's why you're not, Er—"

"A crazy purebloods psycho looking to murder you and all muggleborns?" Harry nodded. Lucy smiled at the boy. "Probably, but also I hated my mother far to much to ever want to be anything like her."

"Where'd he go? Sirius?"

"When?"

"After he ran away."

"Your father's. It's why he ran away in the first place," Lucy said and Harry's brows knitted together.

"What do you mean?"

_"It's that boys fault!" Walburga Black screamed from the bottom the stairs. Sirius who stood half way up the first staircase spun around to face their mother; Lucy leaned her head between the wooden railing from the third floor. Regulus leaned over the railing, his elbows perched on the smooth glossy wood._

_"What are you harping on about now?" Sirius hair was held up in a bun and his leather jacket was worn and had patches sewn down the arms and back._

_"The Potter boy, it's his fault you're a blood traitor!" Walburga declaimed. Sirius' eyes narrowed and his posture stiffened._

_"Leave Jamie out of this!" Sirius demanded, his voice raising,_

_"I will not, it's his fault! He put these ideas in your head! He's using you—"_

_"For what mother, what could James be using me for? Certainly not to murder muggleborns or have the next generation of inbred freaks, not that's you! Unlike you the Potters care about me!"_

_"Those blood traitors—"_

_"Don't call them that!"_

_"Why not? Because you love them?" Walburga sneered._

_"Yes!" Sirius shouted back, he stormed up the rest of the flight and as he clung to the ornate banister at the top of the stairs; a wooden threshold, he looked at their mother, "The Potters are more of a family then you've ever been!"_

_"Ha! They don't love you!"_

_"Like you would know! You're a loveless old hag who wouldn't know the feeling if it bit you—"_

_"Sirius Orion!" Their father's booming voice came from the top of the stairs. Everyone in the house looked up and at the very top floor was sickly man who with a salt and peppered beard, glared down at his oldest son. Lucy's heart pounded in her chest; her father so rarely came out of his room anymore and to see him with a fire blazing in her eyes scared her more than any look on her mother's face ever could._

_"Another word and you're out on the streets." Disownment was a common threat in the house, but unlike all the other times Sirius didn't bow his head in defeat. Instead he glared righteously back up at their father._

_"My shits already half packed, I'll be gone before dinner." And then he stormed the rest of the way up to his room, ignoring the shocked, horrified looks on both Regulus and Lucy's face as he past them and into his room, slamming the door behind him._

_Lucy turned to Regulus, "Is Sirius really leaving?"_

_Regulus turned to look at Lucy, "Go to your room," and then he too stormed to Sirius' room, slamming the door behind him, leaving Lucy to stand in the hallways shaking at the prospect of losing her brother._

"My mother said a few choice things about your father and grandparents, he left an hour later. When I asked Regulus where he went he claimed he went to his real family." Regulus had said it so bitterly, so nasty, a five year old Lucy couldn't help but wonder what Sirius had said to invoke such an anger in her brother. Now she assumed Sirius had disowned the Black family from himself before their mother even had the chance to burn him off the tapestry.

It was quite for another moment, "We heard you, the night he broke into the castle. When you said you want to kill him." Lucy looked at Harry wordlessly. "Would you?" He wondered, "Could you kill him?"

"Could you? If you ran into him one night when you're out past curfew? Could you use the same curse that's been following you your whole life against another human? No matter how horrible they were."

Harry swallowed the thick lump in his throat, "He got my parents killed, he murdered twelve other people." He said avoiding her question. Lucy smiled said at the boy. She leaned on her desk.

"You asked why he betrayed your parents—and no matter what explanation I give you we'll never truly know why. But Sirius," she spoke his name, "Was an angry boy Harry, he was raised by terrible people and no matter how much other people loved him he allowed the anger in him to fester. And I think that's what allowed him the capability to murder those muggles."

"Do you think I could do something like that then?" Harry wondered darkly.

"No," Lucy told him, "Because no matter how angry you are you have this natural kindness inside of you that stops you from ever truly being like the people who've hurt you. I believe that's where we differ."

"What do you mean?"

"You don't have to try to be this good person. I do, and it'll be that fact that allows me to kill him."

"You're a good person!" Harry argued and Lucy smiled weakly at the boy as her chest ached at the false proclamation.

No I'm not, I've hurt people, threatened and blackmailed my way through life— Stebbins, Ben, Malfoy and Nott —I'm not a good person.

"Thank you Harry." Lucy looked at the clock, "Well it's pretty late, I think that's it for tonight but if you ever need someone to talk to again I'm here." Harry stood up.

"I'll remember that and Professor?"

"Yes Harry?"

"Thank you, for talking to me. Ron said you might not want to."

"I think if anyone deserve to hear about him, it's you."

* * *

**March 15, 1994**

Lucy, despite the warming weather, had the large Quidditch themed comforter Mrs. Weasley had long ago sewn for her wrapped tightly around her body as she stared blankly at the wall; the muggle band Black Flags record In My Head blared loudly from the gramophone Lucy had in the corner of her room; Lucy had performed a soundproofing charm before turning the gramophone as loud as it could.

A heavy weight settled on Lucy's chest as she struggled to breath, each breath feeling more suffocating the freeing. Lucy's nails bit into the fabric of the comforter as she ignored the idea of digging them into herself; dragging them up and down her arms until she saw the red blood that flowed through her veins stain her skin.

The last time she had done something like that BIll had found her.

_Lucy was fifteen when Bill Weasley found her on top of the astronomy tower, sobs choking her and blood running down her arms. Red stained under her fingernails and her pajama shirt._

_"Lucy?" Bill whispered horrified, he blinked as his mouth fell open helplessly. He stood at the mouth of staircase. Lucy with blurry eyes looked up at Bill and held her arms closer to her chest, ignoring the blood._

_"Wh-what are yo-you doi-doing her-here?" Lucy cried. Bill moved from the doorway to Lucy's side, his hands hovered over her, his eyes wide and filling with tears of his own._

_"Mia and Rowan snuck out, they said they heard you crying-oh Lucy," Bill sighed as he took her arms in his hands. He stared at her arms, blood seeped out over his fingers and then up at her. "Why?" He wondered, his voice small and vulnerable, like he was afraid of whatever answer she'd give him._

_Another sob racked her body, "I just-I need-needed to. I-I-I-I couldn't he-help it. In-need-needed to fe-f-feel."_

_"So you rip open your arms?" Bill asked, his voice shirley rising as his thick ginger brows came together._

_"I wanted to rip my heart out," Lucy whispered and he stilled, "I can't breath Bill. I hurts, I wanted to-," Lucy cut herself off because she couldn't verbalise what she wanted. She wanted to die, to reach into her own chest and rip out the heavy lungs that lived there and she wanted to scream at them to work. She wanted to breath without a mountain weighing on her chest._

_"Then you come to me," Bill chastised, his own bottom lip quivering, "You don't-you don't do this, okay?"_

_"I shouldn't," Lucy said brokenly, her gaze dropping from his face to his slippers, "I shouldn't weigh you down too."_

_If Lucy was the stormy seas that raged at night then Bill was her moon, shining brightly behind the clouds, pulling her beck from the rocks she so desperately tried to crash against. And the thought of pulling him down beneath her waves, drowning him and smothering his light caused the fifteen year old girl to sob again._

_BIll brought her head against his chest._

_"Don't be an idiot Lucy," he said fondly, "You could never weigh me down."_

Lucy turned in her bed, away from the music and to her door where she rolled in bed, tangling herself even more with the blankets.

Mrs. Weasley had made each one of the blankets LUcy had wrapped around her body; she had made the comforter for her twelfth birthday after she'd gotten into the SLytherin Quidditch team. The knitted green and pink blanket had been the third christmas present she'd received and the wooly blue one had been a graduation present.

Mrs. Weasley had always been the mother Lucy dreamed about, kind and caring and loving and everything her own mother hadn't been.

_Lucy Black, after managing to get away from her mother, was hiding under her brothers bed. Regulus had been dead for nearly three months and yet not matter how long he was gone part of her ached; though the pain in her heart was nothing compared to the pain radiating from her back. Her back stung as she laid on the wooden floor belly up. Her tiny teeth bit into her lip as she stopped herself from crying._

_"Lucretia Walburga!" Her mother screamed from the floor below, crashing followed as the parlors glass paneled door hit the wall, Lucy flinched at the sound, "Lucretia!"_

_Lucy squeezed her eyes tightly. "Everything'll be okay," Lucy mumbled, "Everything'll be okay."_

_Everything will be okay, Regulus had used to say as he held a crying Lucy against his side. Everything will be okay because I'll make it okay._

_And he used to make everything okay, Lucy thought longingly; their mother used to leave her be whenever Regulus stood in front of her. She used to feel safe whenever he'd gather her in his arms and promise her it'd be okay because he was Regulus and he got what he wanted no matter how hard he had to work for it._

_"Everything'll be okay, everything'll be okay-" Regulus's door blew open, the handle going through the rooms green wall._

_"Lucretia Black!"_

Lucy, in her bed, blinked the memory away, willing it from the forefront of her mind when a clam knock came from her door. Despite the softness of the knock Lucy still flinched further into her cocoon at the sound.

"Who is it?" Lucy wondered somewhat loudly as she spoke over the music, fisting the covers closer to her chest. White Hot came to an end and for a moment there was silence.

"It's Remus." Lucy opened her mouth to send the werewolf away only for her to invite him in instead. Remus opened the door only to jerk back at the loud music as In my Head started to play. He quickly shut the door behind him as he looked at Lucy, who was just a face under her pile of covers.

As he made his way to Lucy's bed he took his wand out of his front pocket and waved it wordlessly, the music volume lowered exponentially. He kneeled next to Lucy's bed and as one hand curled around the edge of the bed the other steeled over the comforter where her hair would be.

"Are you okay?" He asked concerned.

Lucy shrugged under her blankets, "I guess, yeah," she told him blandly.

"I'm not buying that," Remus said.

"Then why'd you ask," Lucy muttered, her eyes focusing on the white bed sheet underneath her.

"Cause I hoped you'd tell me the truth," Remus told her with a half smile and one brow raised.

"I-" Lucy sighed, "I'm not having a good day that's all. Nothing's wrong, I'm fine."

Remus frowned concernedly, "Any reason why?" He wondered. Lucy shrugged from under her covers,

"I woke up," she told him blandly. Remus breathed heavily; he nodded and with the strength he did possess he pushed Lucy to the other side of the bed. Quickly he toed off his shoes and curled around the wool cocoon Lucy had wrapped herself in. He pressed his forehead against hers.

"What are you doing Lupin?" Lucy wondered curiously, though she made no move to get away. She stared into his eyes; they were the same color green that lily pads were, dark and bright at the same time. They had flecks of various shades of gold and browns that sparkled like stars and the legend of his nose followed his face out, the slight crack in it nearly halfway down.

"Holding you," he said simply.

"Why?"

"Cause you aren't feeling well. I'll go get us food in a little while," Remus told her, bringing her closer and throwing his leg up and over the lumps of blankets where hers were.

It was quite for a moment, Lucy's ears weren't pressed against his chest but she could hear the steady beat in which he breath in and out, and she peered up at Remus through her lashes. She could hear her mother's crackle echo through her head the more she tried not to.

"Hey Remus?"

"Yes love?" Remus answered, Lucy froze. Love, he called me love; a small smile wormed its way across her face,

"Can you talk to me?"

"About what?"

"Something, anything." Remus nodded,

"When I was a kid I was terrified of gnomes…"

* * *

**March 23, 1994**

The backs of Lucy and Remus' hands were touching as they walked through Diagon Alley, their knuckled brushed against each other with every strip of the unseen cobblestone road. People, recognizing Lucy, despite the cloak she had up, gave the pair of them a wide berth, whispering and pointing in their wake.

"Can we just skip lunch?" Lucy asked Remus, "I'm sure Ted would understand."

"We're not skipping lunch with Ted," Remus said he grinned at Lucy, who couldn't help but grin back under the hood of her burgundy cloak, "He likes me."

"You're such a—"

"It can't be, Lunatic Lucy." Lucy, stopped mid-step. She stiffened at the snide voice behind her and Remus.

"Oi, Black, seen your brother lately!" Another voice called out chuckling. Lucy spun on her heel, Remus, with a sharp glare turned around too.

"Don't know Quin, almost murder any peers lately?" Lucy shot back. Looking nearly the same as they had the last time she'd seen them were Wallace Quin, Sully Chandler and Holden Gills.

"Still not over that Black?" Gills scoffed. "It was just a prank." Lucy could feel a familiar sense of suffocation come over her as she glared at her three schoolyard bullies.

"A prank! I'll show you—" Remus cut Lucy off from reaching for her wand by grabbing her forearm.

"Look, the lunatic still needs someone to protect her. What did Weasel finally wise up and release no matter how much you put out you aren't worth it?" Chandler sneered. Remus's lip pulled into a snarl and stepped forward. Though the three boys paid him no mind.

A crowd formed around the five of them.

"Shut the fuck Chandler!"

"Or what, you're going to murder me? You're like the rest of your family Black, do the world a fav—" Chandlers voice stopped as Remus pulled his wand and pointed it at the younger male, his eyes shining dangerously.

"I implore you," Remus said simply, his voice tempered but his eyes shining dangerously, "Rethink whatever you plan to say."

"Or what?" Chandler wondered thickly.

"You won't be capable of eating anything outside of a straw, let alone apologizing."

It was wrong, so incredibly wrong and Lucy knew it, but as Lucy looked at at Remus who had a dark shadow stretch across his face and an even darker aurora radiating off him, she couldn't help but want to lead him down the alleyway and push him behind a pile of rubbish bins.

"Three on two," Chandler said. Remus shrugged.

"Yeah, but do you really want to try?" Remus wondered sharply. Chandler took one step back and into Quin and Gills, both of whom were fingering the handles of their wands, but looking paler than usual.

"Come on," Chandler said to Gills and Quinn, "Breaks almost over." And then as quickly as they appeared they vanished into the thick crowd that quickly dispersed. Though many still lingered outside of shops spying the pair of Hogwarts staffers. Remus pocketed his wand and Lucy looked up at Remus.

"Thanks for that," Lucy told him, "Also sorry you had too."

"It's no problem, though I have to ask, who were they?"

"Chandler, Gills and Quinn, they were third year Ravenclaws when I entered my first year. Chandlers cousin-in-law was one of the muggles on the street that day." Remus' shoulders slagged.

"Oh."

"Yeah." They started walking towards the restaurant where they had agreed to meet Ted for lunch when Remus froze midstep. He turned to Lucy.

"You mentioned how they almost murdered another student," Remus said cautiously. "It was you."

Lucy nodded.

T_hirteen year old Lucy Black sat on the cliff that overlooked the Black lake as she waited for Bill to turn up with Charlie. Though knowing the younger Weasley brother Bill was more than likely trying to hunt his brother down in the brush of the Forbidden Forest then in the stacks._

_Lucy turned her chin up and closed her eyes, smiling blissfully in the sunlight when a twig snapped behind her. Lucy turned, thinking it was Bill and Charlie only to see three fifth year boys she knew all too well._

_"What do you want?" Lucy's eyes narrowed._

_Chandler stepped forward, "My cousin to smile again for one. And your whole crazy family wiped from existence would be nice."_

_"Can't help you. Now leave me alone," Lucy snapped. She turned around when a spell hit her back and sent her flying through the air and into the lake._

_A shrill scream cut through the air and two concerned voice shouted her name._

_She landed flat against the water belly first; as the air from her lungs escaped water from the lake entered causing the girl to flail. Her robes soaked up the water around them and began to weigh her down, sinking her._

_Her vision began to become fuzzy as the pressure on her chest increased and the water seemed to wrap around her. Like a child's hand in a candy store, pulling sweets from bins._

_The farther down she sunk the darker it became until, in a burning flash of light, she saw nothing._

"I'd been sitting on the cliff overlooking the lake when one of them- Chandler probably -hexed me. I fell; almost drowned. I would've died if Bill hadn't seen and rushed to my rescue. Charlie got Sprout who helped get the water out of my lungs." The words; _I hadn't been breathing when Bill pulled me out_ were lodged in her throat similarly the same way the water had been that day.

"I should kill them," Remus growled, his face pale. He turned back in the direction the younger men had disappeared in.

"What, no, Remus, you don't mean that."

"The fuck I don't," he scoffed. Lucy reached and tilted his chin slightly down so his eyes were no longer scanning the tops of the crowd in search of the three school yard bullies but rather looking directly at her.

"Come on Remus you're not being serious."

"They nearly killed you Lucy!" He hissed.

"They didn't," she said, _Perhaps they should have_, ran through her mind. She blinked the thought away, "And besides, being convicted of a triple homicide really puts a dampers on trying to pick up the ladies." She smiled at him.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Please," he told her "The only lady I want is you." Lucy, reminding herself that they were in public and just being seen with her would ruin Remus far more than being a werewolf would, didn't lean in to kiss him.

But she really wanted to.

* * *

**a/n: Hey guys! So School is over meaning, though I'll still be working, I'll have more time to write chapters and update, but that really all depends on you because as much as I love writing Lucy and Remus I thrive on reviews, meaning, the more updates you guys want to see the more reviews you should leave! And truth is it doesn't even have to be coherent thought you can leave a keysmash behind with come exclamation points; or you can leave me a whole essay if you want, honestly! So please thank you for reading a member to favorite, follow and review!**


	10. April 1994 - chapter ten

**April 1, 1994**

Lucy, naked as the day she'd been born, had awoken early Easter morning wrapped up in Remus Lupins arms. The sun brightly shined brightly through her window, over the tops of the forest trees. Her hands were tucked under his body as she laid on top of his boney self.

Lucy tilted her head up, her cheek flat against his collar bone, and pressed a kissed to the underside of his jaw. She took her hands from under him and rested them against Remus' chest so she could rest her chin on top of him without hurting him.

"Remus," Lucy cooed, "Remus, wakey, wakey eggs and bakey."

Remus hummed, he wrapped the arms that were already around Lucy's waist around her tighter and turned so that they were both on their sides. Remus buried his nose in her hair. He threw one of his legs over hers.

"Remus," Lucy giggled, her thumbs brushed against his cheeks. "Wake up I have call Kreature and get everything ready for Easter you lump."

"Can we just say you're sick and stay in and sleep all day?" Remus muttered tiredly, his eyes still closed.

"No we can't," Lucy used her elbow to push herself up, Remus cracked open an eye and grinned wolfishly up at her as he took in her naked form in the early morning light.

"What's that smile for?" Lucy asked.

"You," he told her softly, he kissed her shoulder, "You're beautiful." Lucy's face burned pink.

"If I'm beautiful you're exquisite," she told Remus, who laughed.

"I always wanted someone to agree with me." Lucy meant to peck his lips, a smile stretched across her face as she did do, only for Renus to cradle the side of her face in his hand and deepen the kiss.

When he pull away, Lucy laid half on him, they booth took deep breaths.

"Happy Easter," he told her,

"Happy Easter."

…

After Remus had dressed himself in his clothes from the day before and gone, promising with a chaste kiss that made Lucy's heart pound in her chest, to be back shortly to help her get her small living area ready for an Easter celebration, Lucy wrapped her lavender robe around herself and called for her house elf.

Who quickly appeared with bags of groceries.

"Happy Easter Kreature," Lucy said pleasantly, she pulled out a cream colored sweater and high waisted balck jeans and a towel and set them on her bedside table.

"Happy Easter Mistress," the house elf said as he always did and bowed deeply.

"Can you get started on the dinner— ham, mashed potatoes, maeun dwaeji galbijjim, kimchi mandu, things like that —while I start cleaning?"

"Kreature lives to serve the Noble House of Black," Kreature bowed deeply before he started to take the groceries out of the bags and placing them on the counter.

Lucy turned and grabbed her wand from next to where she'd put her clothes before and waved it at her bed, "Reductio."

And then the bed started to shrink until it could fit into the palm of her hand. Lucy placed her now palm sized bed on the mantle of her fireplace. She then did the same to the desk and dressers in the corner of her room.

"Kreature?" Lucy called to the house elf whose back had been to her.

"Yes Mistress?" Kreature croaked turning his body to her, giving her his full undivided attention.

"When you're done prepping the food can you go get the table and chairs from my flat?"

"Of course Mistress. Kreature lives to serve the Noble House of Black." Lucy smiled gratefully at the elf; though her nose scrunched up at the title.

"I'm going into a shower if anyone, no matter who it is, stops by be nice-that's an order," Lucy told him with a wagged finger and sharp look.

"Of course Mistress."

When Lucy had shut her bathroom door behind her and taken her shirt off she stared at herself in the mirror. Or rather she stared at her sharp elbows and scars and wondered how Remus could find her beautiful. Her eyes traced the thick scar under her collar bone and then the scars on her forearms and when she tore her eyes away from the mirror and stepped into the shower— the water was still hot enough to turn her skin a boiled red —she caught sight of the rice sized scars on her knees.

Lucy shut her eyes tightly and turned her face up at the hot water, _It's Easter, _she thought to remind herself, _It's the twins birthday, shut up and don't be a selfish bitch and bring everyone down with your shitty mood. Suck it up buttercup._

The first thing Lucy did was wash her hair. She pulled at the knots that wouldn't come undone despite being lathered in dragonfruit conditioner, only to swear loudly as she got conditioner in her eyes, which caused her to elbow the bottle of conditioner and loudly send it flying across the shower.

"Mistress?" Kreature called out worried, "Are you alright?"

"Fine! Yes, I'm—I'm fine Kreature, thank you, I just got something in my eyes!" Lucy called back, half blind as she groped around for the pink and gold lufa she'd bought in Diagon Alley. Lucy had bought the lufa, if only because a years worth of soap had been spelled into it—and also, though no one but Bill knew, she secretly liked the color pink.

Bill, her heart yearned as she pouted under the shower spray, wouldn't be coming to Easter, and though it wasn't the first Easter the pair of friends had forgone since graduating school it was the longest time since he'd brought her to Dumbledore's office their first year that they'd gone without seeing one another and she missed him.

If the twins were each other's halves, Bill was hers, not in the romantic sense everyone tried to allude to with a waggle of their brows and arrogant smirk but rather in the platonic sense. The kind of sense where he brought out her favorite kind of snack when she was hungry before she had to say it, or bring an extra jacket when they went out because he knew just how stubborn she was.

Lucy grabbed her razor and with peach smelling shaving cream she'd gotten from a muggle store, started on her legs when Kreatures voice croaked from the other side of the door,

"Mistress you have visitors!"

"Who is it?" Lucy called out, sticking her dripping wet head out of the shower and over the towle she'd placed on the floor.

"Meiri and Theo, we came to see if you needed any help setting up!" Meiri Prewetts voice called out.

"Uh—do you want to start hanging streamers and balloons and stuff while I finish up in here?"

"Sure!" And then Meiri said something, more than likely to Theo, which was muffled by the running shower water and the door. Lucy nearly started to rush in order to finish her legs but then imagined the bloody mess that'd happen if she cut herself while rushing and not feeling like cleaning up that up Lucy shut off her shower ten minutes later.

Lucy grabbed her wand off the bathroom countertop and pointed it at herself, a rush of warmth over took her as she dried off. Lucy rushed as she got dressed— she through her hair up in its usual ponytail —only, for a moment, to get herself stuck in her cream colored sweater.

"Shit," she muttered as she maneuvered her arms in almost painfully uncomfortable ways until her sweater was how it was supposed to be.

When Lucy walked out of the bathroom she caught sight of Theodore Nott and Meiri Prewett, both of whom were in their Weasley sweaters— only though, Meiris was a very Slytherin green while Theos was a bright Hufflepuff yellow —smiling as they bickered about whether the banister they'd hung up looked right or too lopsided.

Lucy looked at the brightly colored that read, in constantly changing colors, 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRED AND GEORGE'.

"I think it looks fine," Lucy said, taking Theos side. Meiri, who hadn't noticed Lucy emerge from the bathroom spun around and beamed as she lunged at the older witch;

"Happy Easter Lucy!" Meiri cried around the ex-Seekers waist. Lucy, with her arms wrapped around Meiris shoulders shook the younger girl fondly, a large grin on her face,

"Happy Easter Meriri—" Lucy tooled to Theo who stood awkwardly, "Happy Easter Theo."

"Happy Easter ma'am," Theo replied as Meiri untangled herself from Lucy and wandered back over to her best friend as the door opened to reveal the other three parts of that Hogwarts generation of heroes and Ginny Weasley. Tahani Al Jamil followed in quietly after

"Happy Easter!" Lucy smiled, a course of 'Happy Easter' thundered back. Both Ginny and Ron hugged Lucy tightly and when they let go Lucy cleared her throat loudly, each of the school children looked up at her.

"Line up I got everyone Easter baskets," Lucy said, "They're nothing like Mrs. Weasleys but I think they're cute." She opened the closet door that was next to the bathroom and flicked her wand and out floated several bright yellow wicker basket full generic goodies like wiz bangs from the local joke shops and candies like chocolate bunnies— that much like chocolate frogs cake to life when unwrapped —and such.

"Thank you," Harry said, the skin of his cheeks darkening, "You didn't have to."

"Nonsense Harry it's Easter—"

"And the twins birthday," Ginny giggled, "These are more like I'm sorry for whatever they do while my back is turned and mum and Professor McGongall aren't looking." Lucy smiled guiltily.

"They do tend to have fun on their birthday."

"Course they do it's April fools," Meiri chimed in as she chased her chocolate bunny. Ron turned to Harry,

"Dad thought mum was playing a joke on her when she said she was havin' them." Lucy smiled fondly as the constantly told story; apparently Mr. Weasley hadn't released his wife was serious about her contractions until she hexed him, and swore loud enough that from his room, Bill learned his first swear word, something he still wasn't allowed to say in the burrow.

"Madam Lucy?" Tahani wondered looking into the kitchen area, "What is that?"

"Kreature? Come here?" And he did, must to the distaste of Ron and Ginny. Harry looked weary of the house elf, and after the year prior Lucy understood.

"Kreature this is Tahani Al Jamil, Hermione Granger, Theo Nott and—"

"Harry Potter," The House elf croaked, looking up at Harry. Kreature didn't quite glare at the boy, but his look wasn't a kindly one either, it was the look you gave the gum on the bottom of your shoe.

"Er—hi," Harry said, "Nice to meet you." Kreature not quite knowing how to respond to that turned to his Mistress,

"You're to treat them all with the same respect I expect you to treat the Weasley family, is that clear?" Lucy ordered. She didn't give him an ultimatum, after her childhood she wasn't fond of threats towards creatures with lesser power. Witches and wizards were one thing but house elves, who were ordered to harm themselves? The last time she'd been at the Malfoy Manor, and her cousins husband had ordered his elf to burn his ears Lucy had nearly vomited.

_The Malfoy manor was much more flashy than the Black manor, where her cousins had grown up. The garden maze and the peacocks that roamed the grounds, and the priceless antiques that lined the halls were all for show, and though it didn't make nineteen year old Lucy Black sick, it did, after years with Weasleys, make her uncomfortable. _

_"Now," Lucius Malfoy said, his cane supporting his weight, "Why is it my elves have had to inform you're here?" The pair of them stood in the foyer of the manor, the grand staircase behind him see to stretch on ominously into the darkness of the second floor._

_Lucy glared at the man, "You seem to forget yourself Lucius, I am your lady." She tilted her chin up like she had seen her mother and aunt and cousins do so throughout the years._

_"How may I help you Lady Back?" He hissed through gritted teeth. Before Lucy could answer a tony, large eared elf in an old tea cozy popped up besides Lucius._

_"Master," it's high pitched voice squeaked urgently, "Youn—"_

_"I am speaking to someone," Lucius glared down._

_"I see that Master, but—" And then Lucius basheed the young creature over the head with the handle of his cane. Lucy flinched as the elf bobbed backwards. _

_"Young master—" once more the elf is hit, though this time Lucius had kicked it so harshly the creature is flung into the wall, Lucy looked at its crumpled form horrified._

_Is this what I looked like? She wondered, bile rose in her throat._

_"Young Master Draco is hurt!" The elf yelled and both Lucy and Lucius froze and for a moment Lucy thought the man would rush towards wherever his son was, but he didn't, instead he seemed to rise in height. _

_"You dare raise your voice—" Lucy cut Lucius from stalking closer to the shaking elf, _

_"Your son is hurt Lucius, I would go to him." And Lucius sneered at her before looking darkly at the elf behind her._

_"Dobby I order you to burn the tips of ears in the oven," Lucius commanded before walking off towards wherever his son was. A popping sound came from behind Lucy and when she turned around to the elf he was gone. _

_And so was she, Lucy, who had originally come to see Narcissa to make sure she was okay, as she had missed their bimonthly tea, left the manor, and before she could make it to the enchanted gates she heard the elf— Dobby —let out a heart chilling howl from the kitchen. _

"Yes Mistress," Kreature bowed at her, and then to each young student individually before getting back to work in the kitchen.

"He seems nicer today," Ron commented.

"Didn't even call me a redheaded blood traitor," Ginny snorted.

The door burst open— everyone in the room jumped and turned to it —and in flounced Fred and George, Percy, trailing behind them sighing, and Penelope Clearwater and Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint and Ophelia all with him.

"Settle down everyone—" one of the twins cheered, as Ron muttered something to Harry, Hermione and Meiri and Theo.

"—The party has arrived," the other twin finished. Lucy laughed at the boys and wrapped and arm around both their necks as she hugged them,

"Happy birthday you gits!" She shook them both as she hugged them; they each hugged her back, each of their cheeks fondly sandwiching her face between them. When she pulled away, one hand on both boys shoulders she smiled at them.

"I remember when you guys were little!" Lucy laughed as she hugged them once more. She then turned to the other nearly adults in the room,

"Happy Easter." She hugged Percy who flushed pink, embarrassed. Ophelia pecked her cheek before she joined her boyfriend as he and Fred tormented their younger siblings.

"Lucy why is Marcus Flint here?" Ron called out as the twins picked up Ginny and spun her around. Percy— and Penelope —didn't quite yell at the twins as his birthday present to them, as it had been the past few years, was not to nag and or rat them out on said birthday, but he did sternly tell them not to hit anyone "—Watch out for Theodore George!"

"Cause it's an open invitation to anyone who stayed over holidays—oh thank you Mr. Flint?" Lucy held a nicely wrapped carrot cake that Marcus Flint had handed to her.

"I'm Fred!"

"If you were Fred you'd be holding Ophelia's hand!"

"My mother said to give this to you."

"Merlin Fred you have clammy hands, is this why you can't get someone to like you?"

"It's my birthday you can't be mean to me!"

"I'll owl your mother thank you," Lucy said as she turned to Oliver Wood.

"Happy you came Mr. Wood, I'm sorry about your father, though knowing you and the capable hands at the hospital I'm sure he'll be good to new sooner then later." Lucy had heard through the grapevine that Will Wood, Oliver's father and a Quiddtich announcer had accidentally been hit by not one but two stray Bludgers during the Wombats v Arrows game and thus been sent to St. Mungos for the duration of the Easter holiday.

"Thanks ma'am," Oliver beamed as someone knocked at the door.

"Come in!" And in came Remus Lupin. It was times like those, when he was in a nicely pressed sweater and his hair and mustache were combed and the light hit him just right that Lucy wished everyone knew about them because ass she wanted to do was kiss him.

"Remus, Hey!" She beamed, as he walked into the madhouse of a room.

"Hey Lucy—Harry, Happy Easter."

"You too Professor Lupin," Harry, laughing, was then magically lifted off his feet and into the air.

"Fred, George, no breaking other students okay?"

"Where's the fun in that?" One of them laughed as they set Harry back down.

"Seems like you have your hands full," Remus said.

"Yeah though—hmm, bet you a galleon I get them to stop." Remus leaned in

"How about I just go down on you later?" Lucy, pink in the face turned to the kids.

"Fred, George, want your presents?"

"Yeah!" The cheered simultaneously. Lucy winked at Remus as she once again went into the closet and pulled out two long horribly wrapped packages.

Fred and George each took one and didn't bother to hesitate to open them. In a minute the wrapping paper was on the floor and the twins were holding new brooms. Neither of them bring the Firebolt but rather Nimbus 2000s, both of which were upgrades from their shootstars, broom models which had come out in the seventies.

"Is that?" Ron gapped as both twins rushed Lucy, pulling her into a tight bearhug.

"Thank—"

"—You!" And when they let go they turned to the small sea of Hogwarts students, "Who wants to play a game of Quidditch?" Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint jumped to their feet, Harry, Ron, Tahani and Ginny all did as well.

"I'll get the kit," Lucy said as she walked into her office, the kids who would be playing rushed out after her, to go get their brooms— Tahani who played on school issued brooms stayed behind while Ron and Ginny rushed off towards Gryffindor tower to get the twins old brooms —she heard Meiri talk to Theo,

"You should play Theo."

"No, it'll be an odd amount of people."

"You play?" Hermione wondered.

"Yeah, Sort of, Blaise and I usually get together over the summer holidays and play."

"He used to be on a pewee team," Miri giggled as Lucy dragged the heavy leather box of Quidditch balled out from its usual corner and onto her desk. "What about you Professor, did you ever play Quiddtich?"

"No," Remus laughed as Lucy reinterred the room, Theo was on the arm of the chair Miri and Hermione we're sharing, Remus sat on end the couch next to Percy— who with ape polar perched in his lap —sat in middle between him and Tahani. Ophelia sat in the ugly purple chair that, despite its look, was in fact, comfortable.

Lucy, like Theo, sat on the arm of the furniture, only she sat on the arm of the couch next to Remus, who absentmindedly rested his head against her arm. None of the children said anything if they notice.

"Why, were you no good?" Ophelia wondered with a sharp, Slytherin in grin.

"I wasn't, my best friend was the Quidditch captain in our seventh year and after falling off my broom he banned me from the pitch." Lucy looked at Remus with her brows raised.

"He banned you?"

"Said he loved me dearly but wouldn't let me embarrass him on his baby." Lucy snickered into her hand.

"You know this means I have to teach you how to fly properly now, don't you?" Remus sighed,

"Yeah."

"Chin up Lupin, I'm not a complete hardass."

"No you're just scary," Tahani muttered loud enough for Lucy to hear. Lucy, with a somewhat mortified expression on her face, turned towards the young girl, who had a small smile playing on the ends of her lips.

"I'm scary?"

"Wasn't she excited to scare the first years?" Ophelia asked Percy who nodded.

"Course, I mean, don't wear your hair down or you'll fall to you death, don't sneeze or you can crash and die; honestly I'm pretty sure the Gryffindor Kaleton cried at one point because he was scared he'd die if he got into a broom." Tahani smiled.

It wasn't a secret she— like most of the first year population —hated the pompous young Gryffindor, who took far too much after his cousin Cormac McLaggin.

"I suppose I should feel bad for that," Lucy grimaced, but Percy scoffed.

"I'm sorry Perce do you hate a first year?" Penelope bit back a smile,

"He is constantly trying to sneak out! Honestly first you and Bill and Mia and Charlie— his cousin, Merlin spend an hour trying to teach him transfiguration —then the twins and then you—" he pointed at Meiri "—and Ronald and Harry, honestly I think you're all trying to make me go gray prematurely," Percy said.

Remus looked at Lucy, "What did you do him as a child?"

"Me? It was Mia! And besides don't act like you didn't have fun on our adventures," Lucy shot back. Hermionie looked at Percy suspiciously,

"You went on adventures?" Percy's ears turned a light pink. Meiri smirked from her spite next to the bright witch.

"Once or twice I may have—"

"Bullshit!" Meiri cried, she turned to Hermione, "Percy's first year he tagged along with Lucy, Bill and Charlie when they helped Mia, Charlie's girlfriend, look for the Vaults." Hermione looked between Percy and Lucy— Theo And Ophelia, and Penny all looked at Percy with a new found light in their eyes.

"Not constantly," Percy muttered.

"What are the Vaults?" Tahani asked and Lucy's smile faulted as she remembered.

"They were these four Vaults the founders created, one for each house, you see, with the school to hide something, whatever was hidden there optionally was long gone by the time Mia got the seventh, but they're cursed. The first one, until the curse was broken, unleashed cursed ice that would freeze people within it, trapping them, the second was full of boggarts—" at the time her boggart had been herself turning into her mother, Bill telling her she was just like the rest of her family "—the third was in the forest, it was guarded by an Acromantula—" Meiri groaned at the mention of the spiders "—the fourth—" Lucy stood up, "Well, there's no need to talk about that one."

Each of the students asides of Percy and Penelope both of whom could remember the haunted looks on Mia and the others faces that day, looked like they very much wanted to talk about the fourth vault, but they didn't.

Remus grabbed Lucy's hand and squeezed reassuringly.

_The fourth vault was unlike the others, it grander, the torches that lined the walls burst to life as Lucy, Mia and Bill, Rowan and Charlie entered it. The stench of death was practically overwhelming. The door behind them shut as they walked farther into the vault._

_In the middle of the room, half gone, was the young body of Mia's brother Jacob. _

_"Jacob!" Charlie grabbed onto Mia so she didn't go flying to the center of the room. "Let me go Charlie!" A dark chuckle echoed throughout the room._

_"You made it," the voice sneered. Lucy and Bill pulled out the wands, their shoulders were pressed together as Rowan grabbed Mia's hand._

_"Jacob?" Mia looked at the dark ceiling above them, her eyebrows knitted together. _

_"Mia, congratulations you've found me. You're smarter than I remember, though I suppose you only made it this far because of those friends of yours." The body of Jacob got to its feet, his shoulders we're limp and his knees knocked together and all in all it eerily reminded Lucy of a marionette._

_"W-What?" _

_"I remember," Jacobs voice said, his lips did not move, "You being such a stupid little girl." Tears burst to Mia's eyes._

_"I didn't understand, Jacob this isn't you, you wouldn't—"_

_"What? Say such mean things?" The voice was mocking._

_"Shut up!" Charlie snapped, he glared at the air around him._

_"The poor blood traitor, the one who'll never measure up to his brother, and the brother, so desperate to prove he's better then the family he wants to leave behind."_

_"Leave them alone Jacob!" Mia shouted._

_"But I'm just starting to have fun," her brothers voice sneered and Lucy could imagine the twisted smirk on his face as he said so._

_"Rowen Kahn, the know it all, the girl who followed a stranger into a house she didn't belong in because she was so alone. So desperate. Such a freak. And Lucretia Black, a small girl clinging to a family that isn't hers because not even her own could love her."_

_"You're not saying anything I haven't heard before!" Lucy shouted, she stepped forward, "So how about to leave my family and get on it with it already!" Jacobs body— his corpse —produced his wand. _

_"Fine then, one of you, step forward and defeat me, or let your body lay here for eternity." And she would have, Lucy would have stepped forward if not for the fact Mia had wretched herself out of Charlie's arms, and with tear filled eyes looked at her brothers body._

_"If I win," Mia asked, "I take your body back with me?" _

_"If you win, little sister," the voice taunted, and then the duel started._

The door to the room opened and in came Ginny, who was on one of the twins back, riding him like a horse, then Ron and Harry, both of whom were practically bouncing in anticipation at the prospect of a Quidditch game, then the second half of the Weasley Twins whose arms were locked around the necks of Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint.

"Who's ready to have their arse kicked!" George— Lucy knew it was George who had his arms around the Quidditch captains because as soon as he entered the room he tugged Ophelia to her feet —shouted.

"I feel like we should scold him for swearing but then I remember the mouth on you," Lucy whispered to Remus who hugged out a laugh. Lucy looked at the kids,

"Let me just grab a broom for Tahani and then we can go—who wants to carry the kit, because it's my day off so I'm not."

"We will," Wood offered up motioning his head to Flint.

"Thanks boys, now come on!"

…

Two hours later, after three games, all of which ended with Fred's teams winning because due to the fact they only had eight players in total and until dinner they hadn't used a Snitch, causing Tahani and Harry— who did in fact play well but not Harry Potter well —to be positioned as a Chasers.

"Merlin Ginny!" George gasped as they all settled on the pitch, "When did you get so good?"

"Lucy's been helping me," Ginny told her brother smugly.

"Cheater, you're being professionally trained!"

"So's Tahani, And don't act like Lucy and her team've never given you or Ron tips on playing!"

"You've met her team?" Wood demanded to know,

"Of course, like a bunch. Honestly they all kinda of hate Ron," Fred snickered.

"They do not!" Lucy yelled as she and Remus and the children who weren't playing came down from the stands, "Stop telling people that you'll make them think my team hates kids!"

George turned to Wood, "They hate him."

"I'm going to hex him," Lucy said to no one in particular. Both Percy and Remus snorted as Meiri jumped on her younger cousin. Lucy turned to Hermione, who stood by Percy's side.

"You know I'm surprised you aren't over there with them."

"Oh," Hermione flushed, "Ron's still mad at—the only reason I came was because Meiri insisted and—"

"She's as stubborn as a mooncalf?" Lucy interjected, Hermione nodded. "You know Hermione, you're a good friend."

"I am?" She seemed genuinely surprised. Lucy looked at the others,

"Shoo, girls are talking," Remus chuckled as he lead Percy and Penelope over the other children. Lucy looked at Hermione and rested a hand on her shoulder.

"You don't like Quidditch do you?"

"I mean I don't hate it," Hermionie said nervously.

"It's not for everyone, as a Quidditch player I've learned that, but I've also learned by seeing how you didn't bother to ask a single question you know Quidditch."

"I took out Quidditch through the ages after Harry made the team."

"See, you're a good friend, and just because the boys are being git's about dumb fucking rat that doesn't mean you're a bad friendly a bad person, it just means they're being stupid. Okay?" Hermione smiled up at Lucy.

"Thank you."

"Mum!" Lucy And Hermione looked to see Professors Sprout and McGonagall, And Hagrid leading a small group of adults onto the pitch. Mr and Mrs. Weasley stuck out like sore thumbs due to their bright ginger hair and Tonks' bright pink Mohawk stood above Mr. Weasleys head, Gadrel, the Tornadoes Chaser, held Muriel Snyder's hand as she and Barnaby followed behind Penny.

"Flint look!" Oliver whispered, his voice high as he looked at the Chaser. The Weasley children rushed their parents. Lucy lead Harry and Theo, and Tahani in their lead.

"Lucy!" Molly Weasley cried, crushing the dark haired witch against her in a tight hug once she let go of the Twins. When she pulled away Molly Weasley's hands were cupping her cheeks as Meiri introduced Theo to her uncle who'd clapped both twins on the back.

"How are you, have you been eating? You seem a bit thin deary," Molly mothered and Lucy smiled,

"I'm fine Mrs. Weasley, honestly, I've been eating plenty, how are you?"

"I'm fine, it gets lonely so lately I've been meeting up with Hestia Jones recently, she works with the Muggle-Worthy excuse department."

"And how did you meet her?" Lucy wondered. Molly's smiled dimmed slightly and Lucy's heart deflated,

"We knew each other as children, she was always sweet on Fabin before Marlene came into the picture. I saw her in the ally and we got to talking again." Lucy gripped Molly Weasley's shoulders tightly,

"It's always great when you can reconnect with old friends." And they looked at each other for a moment with. A look only someone who's lost their sibling could understand, one of deep sorrow and longing and heartbreak, and then Molly Weasley smiled,

"Harry! Dear!" Lucy moved to the side as Molly swept Harry into a hug.

Remus was talking to Penny and Dora, Professor Sprout chimed in every so often causing the two witches to look away, holding back guilty smiles causing Lucy to wonder just what they were talking about.

"Hey Tahani, Wood, Flint! Come over here will you!" Neither Tahani nor, the boys hesitated as Lucy lead them over to Barnaby— who was talking to Theo and Meiri —Muerla and Gadrel.

"Gade, I want you to meet three of the five most promising players to grace these halls since me," Lucy told him. "Tahani Al Jamil, Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint."

Gadrel held his hand out to Tahani, "It's a pleasure to meet you," he looked at the boys as he shook their hands, "If Lucy's praising you, you must be good."

"What's that supposed to mean Gade?"

"You're almost as much as a hard ass as Merwyn and Birch."

"You know Hardwik?"

"Okay but what's the most dangerous creature you've seen?" Meiri asked Barnaby as Hagrid gravitated over.

"Please don't tell her because then all she's going to talk about is how to go about adopting it," Theo said.

"Shut up!"

"What Black?" Lucy turned to Muriel, "Dump him, I'll get you a date with Troy from Irish National team." Gadrel looked scandalized,

"I—rude! Tonks your cousins being mean to me!" Dora turned from her conversation with Remus and Sprout,

"You probably deserved it!" Gadrel looked at Wood and Flint,

"Don't tell me she's your favorite Professor."

"Well I mean—" Lucy saw Oliver Woods eyes catch those of his Head of House and Deputy Headmistress,

"She's a close second after Professor McGonall." Flint snickered into the back of his hand.

"I can safely she is," Flint said as Lucy told Oliver not to lie, "We all know it's Madam Hooch."

"Yeah…"

"And what about you kid?" Gadrel asked Tahani who squared her shoulders in a regal, aristocratic way. Tahani looked up at Lucy and smiled,

"Yeah, she is."

"Lucy—Tahani!" Ginny called out from under her mother's arms, "Dad wants to meet you!" Lucy took Tahani shoulders under her hands,

"The boys want to play Quidditch professionally, don't scare them away," she told Gadrel before she lead Tahani over to Mr. Weasley.

"Hi Tahani," Mr. Weasley smiled, Lucy was sure between herself and Ginny, who had taken to the Ravenclaw, both Weasley parents knew everything about the first year in front of her, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Tahani shook Mr. Weasleys hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you as well sir." When Mr. Weasley dropped Tahanis hand the young witches hands covered Lucy's nervously.

"You're a Ravenclaw I hear?"

"Yes sir."

"You wouldn't happen to know the function of a rubber duck would you?"

"Pardon me?"

"Mr. Weasley here works in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office, and he's sort of taken with muggle culture."

"And the past few years I've been wondering what is the function of a rubber duck."

"How did you come to wonder that?" Tahani asked, her hands falling from Lucy's.

"Well it's a funny story…" Lucy walked away from Tahani and Mr. Weasley and over to Remus who listened to Dora try to explain to Professor Sprout that she hadn't actually tried to kill Justin Fawcett with a mandrake in her fourth year, that "It was an accident Professor!"

"Hey," Lucy greeted, her shouted pressed against his. Her eyes skimmed the crowd around her, her friends— family —laughing and having fun, only three people missing from the nearly perfect picture in front of her.

"Hey."

* * *

**April 4, 1994**

Lucy and Remus had taken a break from patrolling on the fifth floor corridor, the large floor to ceiling windows allowed the moonlight to shine brightly into the hall as Remus rested against the bannister, the light from the crescent moonlight hitting him just perfectly.

It made him look young and old, eternal and tired, perfect.

"When I was a young boy," Remus said, "My parents used to move us around. The neighbors used to hear my screams once a month and after a few moons they're would be a muggle police man at our door."

"That must of been hard," Lucy said as she leaned against the banister next to him.

"It was lonely," Remus corrected her. "My mother couldn't hold down a job, she was a muggle and couldn't apparate to work like my father and well, we always moved before I could make friends. Not that anyone wanted to be my friend."

"Why not, I'm sure you were a sweet—"

"I was the shy new kid with scars. I was a freak," Remus told her, he looked up at the sky miserably. "When I came here I was excited, my father had always told me I'd never get to go to school because of my condition but then Dumbledore shows up and tells me he's made arrangements for me."

Lucy turned to him, she didn't speak.

"I wasn't friends with James and Peter and—" Remus cut himself off, "We were roommates and we spoke but they didn't find out until my second year and when they had I'd been so scared that they'd tell everyone, that I'd be run out of the school." Remus breathed. "They didn't though. They told me I wasn't a monster—how could I be when I folded my socks. They were the first friends I ever had."

Lucy took Remus' hand in her own when she saw them, tears gathering in the corner of Remus' eyes. Lucy cupped his face,

"Remus," she cooed, brushing her thumb across his cheek.

"It's his birthday," Remus said wetly, "Peters. We used to let throw him this huge party in the common room, his father was a drunk who died our third year and his mother, she was overbearing, he used to say we were the best family he ever had."

"Then be happy knowing you were the best part of his life, Remus you and James Potter must have made him so happy, just as happy as they made you."

"I couldn't protect him," Remus told her, "It'd been a full moon that night and I'd been in my basement, I didn't hear about everything until two days later when Dumbledore came and told me, Lucy I let him die."

"No you didn't—"

"Yes I did! Peter, he was smart, but his couldn't duel to save his life and I—I could and I was too sick to help him avenge James death. It's my fault."

"Who's to say you wouldn't have died too, huh? Who's to say he wouldn't have killed you as well?"

"I should have died!" Remus shouted, "I should have died with him."

"Please," Lucy begged Remus, "Please don't say that."

"Why not? It's true, Lucy there's no life here for me? No one aside from Dumbledore will hire me, I have no future!"

"Then what am I? What is Dora? Huh, Harry? We're your future!" Remus scoffed and pushed away from her,

"Please the minute the Ministry catch him and you're back to playing Quidditch you'll forget all about me."

"Arsehole," Lucy scoffed, "If you for one minute think that's true you don't fucking know me!"

"Is that so?"

"Yes you idiot, because I know it's hard for you to comprehend but I care about you! I care about you!" _I love you!_

Remus looked at Lucy for a moment, a hard, guarded looking his eyes and then at the floor, ashamed. "I'm sorry," he whispered. Lucy shook her head and grabbed him tenderly,

"Dummy, what's it going to take for you to remember that?" Remus shrugged, he wrapped his arms around Lucy.

"I miss them," his told her softly, brokenly.

"It's okay."

* * *

**April 5, 1994**

Though the Quidditch stands were not filled as they usually were when actual house games were played Remus Lupin had brought his third year Gryffindor-Slytherin class, and Professor Sprout had brought her second year Hufflepuff-Gryffindor herbology students to watch as both respective houses first years played each other.

The sun beat down onto the grassy pitch.

Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor McGongall, who had no classes to teach that period, sat in the teachers' box as the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor first year teams met in the middle.

Unlike the house teams neither side had uniforms or jerseys, though each student with a broom wore a brightly colored something that matched their course flag. Ruthie Flowers wore a canary yellow sweater, yellow scrunchie, and yellow sneakers. Malik Devon, the first year Gryffindor captain wore a red jacket, and pants and backwards ball cap he had Lucy to spell to his head in order to keep it from flying off.

"Now I want a nice fair game just as I've taught you," Lucy said.

Malik Devon shook Ruthie's hand firmly, and then, at the sound of the whistle, both teams were off. The Bludgers, charmed soft, were up in the air, the Snitch zoomed out of sight and the Quaffle was in Hufflepuffs possession.

Lucy took to the sky as well.

"Daniel Feathers from Hufflepuff has possession of the Quaffle—he passes to Ben Isaacs."

Marsha and her sister Janice, both Gryffindor chasers cradled Ben Isaacs. between them, trying to get him to drop the Quaffle as they steered him away from their goal post when Ruthie shot a Bludger at them—

"Ruthie Flowers Captian from Hufflepuff hits a Bludgers at the Gale sisters and her own player."

—Bens broom dropped as both sisters smirked out of the way, only for him to fly back up and shoot the Quaffle into the goal post, mast McLaggins cousin.

"Hufflepuff scores first, five-zero."

The Hufflepuff and Slytherins in the stands cheered loudly as the Gryffindors groaned. Lucy used her wand to catch the Quaffle from hitting the ground and throwing it back into the game where one of the Gryffindor chasers caught it.

"Alec Waverly catches the Quaffle." Only to lose it half way across the field due to an intercepted pass. "Another five points to Hufflepuff," McGonagall said into the microphone. The Gryffindors groaned loudly.

And so the game continued— McGongall narrated the game, no unnecessary cometary as there would be if Lee Jordan were doing the commentary —at least it did until Henry Jackson, a scrawny Hufflepuff who was all knees and elbows and muggle pop culture references dove— not quite fainting but dive sharply enough for everyone to stand from their seat, Lucy leaned forward on her broom, prepared to dive after the boy should he get too close to the ground —and caught the Snitch.

"Hufflepuff wins with a total of one hundred and ninety point!"

The Hufflepuff second years cried out, as did the Slytherins in the crowd, Professor Sprout clapped loudly. Lucy and the first years landed on the pitches green, the Hufflepuss cheering and dogpiling on each other while the Gryffindors Solomon congratulated one another; though they all made sure to ignore one Mr. Kaleton McLaggen.

"Alright Hufflepuff! Come the fourteenth you'll be going against whenever wins the next match, and if you win, you'll be getting the surprise—chin up Gryffindors you did win fifty points for your house," Lucy said. The Gryffindor first years smile at that

"Now we have like fifteen minutes left before class ends do whatever," Lucy threw her hands at the children who either took back to the sky or scampered off with the friends. Though Ruthie Flowers, as Sprout and Remus started to lead their classes off the pitch, stayed to help Lucy put the balls away.

"Hey Madam Black?"

"Yeah Ruthie?"

"Are games always that fun?"

"No," Lucy told Ruthie with a grin, "Sometimes they're even more fun."

"Wicked!" Lucy couldn't help but laugh at the young girls enthusiasm.

* * *

**April 9, 1994 **

Until the Hufflepuff-Gryffindor pewee match no classes came to watch the Slytherin Ravenclaw one, Flitwick the period was instructing fifth year's preparing them for their OWLs, and both Remus and Professor Sprout had NEWT level courses to teach, and Snape, though had the Gryffindor and Slytherin third years, wouldn't bring them out onto the pitch because in Lucy's option he had an extra wand jammed up his arse.

But it was okay because students who didn't have classes— Marcus Flint and some of the Slytherin team and Roger Davies, Cho Chang and Cedric Diggory, along with Morse students Lucy couldn't quite name —settled into the bleachers.

Astoria Greengrass, with a confident face, wore green robes that seemed to shimmer in the sunlight while Tahani, with a cold face of indifference, worse a blue tracksuit. Both girls had their hair pulled back into braids.

"Go Tahani!" Lucy blinked as she pretended not to hear the voice of Ginny Weasley in the crowd as the young Gryffindor was supposed to have class.

"Alright I want a fair game, no cheating, no underhand tactics, is that clear?" Both girls, not looking at Lucy nodded. "Shake," They did so and for a second Lucy wondered who's grip was tighter— Tahani or Astoria —only for the Greengrass girl to pull back first, flexing her hand.

Lucy stepped back and lifted her whistle to her lips, waited, and then blew, Tahani soared higher than Quniton, the Slytherin Seeker as she glided over the pitch.

And once everyone was in position Lucy released the balls.

"Slytherin—" Warren Worthington said I to the microphone, as Professor McGongall had a class to teach, "Had poss—sorry Ravenclaw now has possession of the Quaffle as their beater—" he squinted at the list of names and positions Lucy had given him "—Sean Tressler hit a bludger towards the Slytherin Chaser Garry Overland."

Wendy Higgs, the Slytherin Keeper blocked as Willow Evers, the Ravenclaw Chaser who'd taken possession of the Quaffle tried to score. Astoria Greengrass caught the Quaffle and took off towards the Ravenclaw side of the pitch only to drop the ball when Hallie Fredrick cut her off, causing her to drop the Quaffle into the waiting arms of Collin, the third Ravenclaw Chaser who flew back to the Slytherin goal posts, and scored.

"Five-zero Ravenclaw," Worthington said as Roger Davies whooped loudly from the stands. "Slytherin in possession—Merlin you guys suck," Worthington muttered as one again Slytherin quickly lost the Quaffle.

"Worthington!" Lucy shouted as she flew over to the commentator box. "You can't tell eleven year olds they suck!"

"Right, sorry ma'am. I'd like to make a revision to my previous statement, first year Slytherins you stink."

"That's not what I meant and you know it!" Worthington smiled tiredly back at Lucy.

Ravenclaw scored twice more before Slytherin managed keep the Quaffle long enough to attempt to score. "Ravenclaw, twenty-zero. Ravenclaw Seekers seen something," Warren observed as Lucy watched Tahani dart across the field, the Slytherin Seeker tailing her, "Terry Quang on her tail—who will get the Snitch first?" Worthington wondered in a bored tone.

Tahani stretched her hand out, her fingers shook as they reached— Terry Quang, a boy, just a little bit taller then Tahani, caught up and stretched his own arm out —only for Tahani to lunge, off her broom and catch the Snitch in the palm of her hand.

The crowd gasped, "Ravenclaw wins! Their Seeker doesn't!"

"Tahani!" Lucy shouted as she flew across the field to catch the falling girl, forgetting about the softening charms she and Professor Flitwick had placed before the game. _Perhaps this is what Mrs. Weasley feels when I play, _Lucy thought briefly— she didn't linger on why she compared herself to Mrs. Weasley, why she thought such a motherly thought —instead she urged her broom to go faster.

Tahani, midair curled herself into a ball, the way Lucy had taught in their first lesson, with her forearms in front of her face and her hands flat against her head; the snitches wings beat rapidly against her hair.

Lucy caught the girl around her middle, Tahani instinctively wrapped her arms around Lucy's neck as she flew them to the ground. Lucy let her broom hit the ground the moment her feet hit the green, her knees shook as she hugged Tahani closely to her chest.

She then pushed Tahani an arms length away, "Are you alright?" Tahani grinned a large toothy smile,

"I stand corrected, Ravenclaw wins and their Seeker lives."

"Corse I am," she produced the Snitch, "I won." Lucy mouth fell open, a smile on her own face.

_Yeah_, she thought, _This is exactly how Mrs. Weasley must feel._

* * *

**April 12, 1994**

Remus Lupin had Lucy on the edge of her desk, he stood between her legs, which were wrapped around his waist, and she pressed her chest more firmly against his as he rutted against her. Lucy's nails scraped against his scalp as her teeth nipped at his bottom lip before suckking on.

Remus's hand groped down from her waist past the top of her pants.

He pulled away panting, "I want you," he told her heatedly, his eyes half closed but filled with lust, and Lucy, who looked up at him though her lashes smiled coyly at him.

"Then take me, Professor." Remus's lips crashed against hers, his hands working to unbutton her shirt, only for the door of her office to burst open just as Remus threw her shirt to the ground, the _Hey Lucy _cut short, and there in the arch of the open doorway stood George Weasley, who looked as horrified as both Lucy and Remus.

George opened his mouth, his eyes wide and disgusted, only to close his mouth. He opened it once more but no sound came out. Neither Lucy or Remus moved from their spots, the pair of them seemingly rooted to the floor—or in Lucy's case, her desk.

"Sweet motherfucking Merlin my eyes!" George cried, his hands flew up to cover his eyes. Remus jumped backwards from Lucy and into the wall, Lucy dove to the ground to grab her shirt.

"Geo—"

"—My innocen—"

"—Geo—" Lucy hazardly buttoned her shirt; none of the button had been in the proper hole causing white shirt to be lopsided. She moved off her desk

"—This is worse then walking in on Mia and Charlie Morgana's tit!" George cried Lucy pressed her lips together.

"I hate you," she told the young teen,

"Me!" George cried scandalized, "You're the one who didn't lock your office door! Why are you going to do it in your office?" Lucy's cheeks pinkened at what she'd had in mind—Remus taking her against her desk, bending her over it and having his way with her, as all the paperwork and quills that'd been on it lay scattered on the floor —Remus caught her eye from his spot against the wall and his lips twitched upwards. As if he could read her mind.

George made a yacking sound as he pretended to stick his finger down his throat.

"Gross, you know what I don't want to know—just—dose mum and dad know?" George wondered.

Lucy raised a brow suspiciously. "Why?"

"Cause I need ten galleons for Ophelia's birthday present, so ten galleons or I'm telling Ron who'll tell mum!" Lucy's draw dropped.

"Your mother will kill me for not telling her on Easter."

"Sounds like a you problem," George crossed his arms.

"Fifteen and you don't even tell Fred," Lucy bartered.

"Twelve, I tell only Fred but he tells no one."

"Not even Ophelia?" Lucy wondered suspiciously.

"Nope." Lucy looked at Remus who shrugged, he reached into his pocket and pulled out four galleons. Lucy thought for a moment, of what Molly Weasley's reaction to Lucy not only shagging her coworker but not telling her when she was meeting the coworker allowing her to interrogate said coworker.

_Bad,_Lucy thought, _It'll probably be bad. _So Lucy took the money from Remus' palm and eight more golden goblin made coins from the pouch in her desk drawer before handing them over to George, who grinned victoriously.

"Thanks for the money not the life scaring image also—" George turned to Remus with a calculating gaze, "I guess I approve."

"You approve, huh?" Lucy snorted. She sat back up on her desk.

"You could do worse," George said.

"You're right I could be shagging Snape," Lucy said and George made a noise that sounded like he'd be sick. Remus snickered into the palm of his hand.

"Don't even—you know what? I'm out. Make sure to lock the door behind me. Bye!" George said before he turned tail and walked out the door, closing it behind him.

Lucy turned to Remus, "I want to say something like where were we but the mood is dead."

"Want to help me grade papers?" He wondered holding a hand out to her.

"Sure," she said, taking his hand.

**April 14, 1994**

The fourteenth was a Saturday and technically while the Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff first year pewee match had been set for the following Monday Dumbledore had requested Lucy to move it, as handfuls of children had skipped their Monday classes to see the Ravenclaw-Slytherin match.

That time, for the final pewee match, the stands were half way filled with cheering students from both respective houses, Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood held a sign in support of Tahani and Cho Chang and Cedric Diggory sat on opposite sides of the pitch, dressed and painted in their house colors.

Remus and Sprout and Flitwick, along with McGonagall and Dumbledore sat in the teachers' box while Lee Jordan sat in front of the microphone next to them within an arm's reach of McGonagall, who as usual, was ready to scold the young Gryffindor for getting off track and swearing.

Ruthie Flowers once more was dressed in her yellow sweater and bright yellow shoes while Tahani was dressed in a familiar blue jersey that Lucy had once given Ginny Weasley; the Weasley last name above the number— her Quidditch number —fifty-five, and the same blue sweatpants she had women in her last game.

"Now I know tensions are high but that's not an excuse to play dirty hear me?" Lucy said to both girls, "I want a fair, clean game that doesn't give me a heart attack—" Lucy looked at Tahani who smiled innocently at Lucy, "Now, on my mark, mount your brooms."

Loudly Lucy blew her whistle, and thus the game had started.

"Hogwarts first pewee Quidditch match final hosted by our lovely Quidditch instructor Lucy Black, Ex-Tutshill Tornados Seeker And if she waits another two years my future wife," Lee Jordan started off.

"Jordan!" Lucy looked at the teachers box where she saw Remus biting his knuckles as Professor Sprout giggled into her hand.

"What? Willow Evers, Ravenclaw Chaser has passion of the Quaffle—Hufflepuff beater and pewee Captain Ruthie Flowers hits a Bludger at her, and it's defended! By Ravenclaw Beater Sean Tressler. Merlin for a toothpick that kid is good. Wonder who Davis is kicking off the team next year to make room for him—right sorry Professor."

"Evers passes to Collin who passes back who—and it's intercepted by the Hufflepuff Chaser Ben Isaacs! He shoots and—it's blocked by the Ravenclaw keeps. Merlin these kids are good. Hallie Fredrick's has the Quaffle, she barrel rolls out of the way of an oncoming Bludger, Tressler once again hits the Bludger away from his players, Fredrick's passes to Collin who scores! Five points to Ravenclaw!" The Ravenclaws in the stands clap loudly as the Quaffle is caught by one of the Hufflepuff players.

The next two points go to Hufflepuff; after that Ravenclaw take the lead by fifteen points leaving, for the next twenty minutes the sore at twenty-ten. Lucy blew her whistle loudly when one of the Hufflepuff Chasers threw an elbow, catching Hallie Fredrick in the chin; Lee Jordan cried foul into the microphone.

"Free through for Ravenclaw!" Lucy instructed. Hallie lined up with the goal, the Quaffle in her hands and throws it, getting past the Keeper.

"Twenty five-ten, fifteen point lead goes to Ravenclaw." And then the game continues; Lucy's breath, when Tahani shoots up in the sky towards the Snitch, gets caught in her throat as the Hufflepuff Seeker Henry Jackson chases after her.

"Both Seekers have seen the Snitch, is this it folks, is the game over?" Lee Jordan cried into the microphone, gripping the handle of it tightly. Lucy leaned forward on her broom ready to catch either child. The ground was soft but a fall like that, while wouldn't kill or gravely injured either Tahani or Henry Jackson, would cause a broken bone.

It's not hard to see who won, not from where Lucy sat on her broom and not from the stands because Tahani Al Jamil stops flying with her hand victoriously up in the air a half a minute before Henry Jackson stops.

"And it is!" Lee Jordan yells, "Tahani Al Jamil court the Snitch! Ravenclaw wins the first ever pewee Quidditch final!"

The crowd goes wild, Lucy can see Flitwick jumping up and down in his seat— the last time Raven claw had won any kind of Quidditch final was the year before she had joined her house team —as Cho Chang hugged Marietta Edgecombe.

Lucy joined the kids on the ground; Ginny Weasley, with her cousin and brothers— and Harry, Hermione Luna Lovegood and Theo —rushed through the crowd as Hallie Fredrick's jumps on Tahani.

Ruthie Flowers, walked up to Tahani whose knees buckled under Hallie Fredrick's weight.

"Good game," Ruthie said, Tahani shook the Hufflepuffs hand, "Great game." The pair of them smile at each other,

"Next time we play I'm going to kick your arse," Ruthie told Tahani and Lucy's eyebrows shot up, Tahani though didn't look phased, instead with a sharp grin she smiled back at the Flowers girl,

"Whatever you think Flowers, just know, I always win."

"We'll see Al Jamil," Ruthie said before wandering over to her team and clapping Henry Jackson on the back. Ginny Weasley gave no warning to Tahani or Hallie Jackson as she tackles Tahani— and Hallie by association —to the ground.

"Ginny you cannot break other students!" Lucy exclaimed as all three girls laughed on the ground.

"You won! You won!" Ginny hugged Tahani. Meiri, though a Hufflepuff, helped Tahani to her feet and embraced the girl in a congratulatory manor and Theo, who Tahani had apparently gotten to know better fist bumped her.

Tahani turned to Lucy with a large grin on her face,

"Proud of me or what?" Tahani asked.

"Course I am," Lucy told her, "I knew you could do it Tahani." And the young girls eyes spark to life.

…

Later that night as Remus Lupin and Lucy Black sit in her room, two cups of cooling tea forgotten in the coffee table as his slid his hand down her pants a knock came from the door. Lucy's head poked over the couch,

"Who is it?" She wondered.

"Astoria Greengrass ma'am." Lucy looked at Remus— who looked back with the furrowed brow —confused.

"Coming, I'll—just give me a moment please." Lucy shifted Remus off of her and grabbed her robe. She answered the door as she tired it tightly around her waist. Lucy was shocked to see that it wasn't in fact just Astoria Greengrass at her door but Meiris best friend as well.

Theo Nott, in his pajamas and slippers hand his hands shoved deeply into his robe pockets.

"Miss. Greengrass, Theodore? Is everything okay?" Lucy asked.

"Yes?" Astoria said before frowning, "No—I—" the young girl produced a letter. "My aunt Claudia wrote to me in the beginning of the year after she heard you were going to teach and I asked my sister why she'd write and Daphne told me she was betrothed to your brother Regulus before he died when they were kids and well, I've always been close to my aunt you see, and when I asked my mother why we never heard of you— of him —and she told me about what happened after your brothers death and I didn't mean to withhold this from you ma'am, I just—" Astoria Greengrass took a deep breath in, "I love my aunt and I didn't want her hurt, she never married." She still loves your brother went unsaid. Lucy gently took the letter from Astoria.

"Then why give it to me now?" Lucy wondered.

"Theo caught me with it," Lucy looked at the dark haired boy who shrugged, "I've been carrying it around because I know I've had to give it to you but I haven't been able to work up the courage and tonight Theo saw me looking at it, it's addressed to you—" Lucy looked at the letter and in a familiar handwriting was her name, Lucretia W. Black, "—and he told me I couldn't just keep a letter that wasn't addressed to me and he's right but then I got scared you'd be mad so he came with me."

"Oh, well thank you—both of you. Theos right though you shouldn't keep mail that isn't yours."

"I know," Astoria said glumly.

"But wanting to protect your aunt, your family, it was noble of you. Something only real Slytherins understand." The young girl brightened. "Now wait here while a write the two of you a note in case a Professor catches you, alright?" Lucy dispersed into the room and handed Remus the letter while she grabbed the last of her gel pens, a sparkly blue one, and scribbled an excuse for both Theo and Astoria. When she returned to the door and handed Theo the note Lucy looked at Astoria.

"Thank you for giving me the letter, I'll see you both tomorrow, no detour straight back to your common room, hear me?"

"Yes ma'am," Astoria said while Theo smiled.

"Sure." And when they left the tiny Quidditch instructors office Lucy turned to Remus.

"Tell me not to read the letter and I'll throw it in the fireplace and we can get back to shagging." Remus smiled softly at Lucy,

"You've got to read the letter love." Lucy nodded and sat down next to him, his arms wound around her as he pulled her into his lap, the sexual mood of the room gone as she opened the letter.

_**To Lucy,**_

_**I hope this letter reaches you in good health as I've heard about Sirius' escape and what the ministries done to you, and though this letter isn't about that, as I know you didn't help him escape— you were never a troublesome child and though the years have past it would be hard to imagine a young girl like yourself growing into a woman who planned and helped orchestrate a prison break —but rather your other brother, Regulus. The last time I saw you, you were nine years old and you hated me, you blamed me for the death of Regulus and in some ways I do suppose I am responsible, your hatred for me is valid. **_

_**Truth be told I'm not quite sure why I'm writing you this letter, I suppose it's because my niece told me you were the new Quidditch instructor and something inside of me, something inside my heart that hasn't sparked to life since Regulus died told me I needed to speak with you, to ask to meet with you and see you again. **_

_**Do not feel obligated to write me back, to see me if it would only do you more harm than good as my priority, as it used to be, is your wellbeing. **_

_**Sincerely, Claudia Burke**_

Lucy turned to Remus helplessly as he finished reading the letter over her shoulder.

"What do I do? Do I write her back? Do I see her?" She asked him.

"It's up to you Lucy," Remus told her, "Can you handle it?"

"... I don't know," she said honestly as she looked back at the letter in her hands, unsure of what path to take; whether to see Claudia Burke or not.

* * *

**a/n: I updated and tbh its cause I saw KitandOpies comment anf immeditly startted writing, like not joke I woke up at like ten and by eleven I was outlining this chapter. So that just goes to show you what reviews like theirs can do. Anyway keep reviewing amd letting me what you want to see and I'll keep updating!**


	11. May 1994 - chapter eleven

**May 4, 1994**

Perhaps it wasn't the biggest of surprises when the Slytherin Quidditch team beat the Hufflepuff team, at least not the way Marcus Flint had been drilling Lucy's school team and the substitute Seeker Terrance Higgs ever since the Headmaster had declared Draco Malfoy's temporary suspension. No what was surprised Lucy Black, laughing at the dumb, corny, not even really funny joke Remus had told her— _What do you call an alligator in a vest?_ He'd wondered, _What, an investigator?_ She shot back sarcastically_ His name!_ —but the fact that she— that they, Remus had stumbled into her back as she stopped short, his hands on her hips and his nose scrapping the shell of her ear —found Marcus Flint and Oliver Wood in a tangled heap of limbs pressed against the wall of a corridor, the former still in his Quidditch robes.

And while even that wasn't so much of a surprise— all the Professors and their mothers knew the two boys liked each other —but rather what had surprised her was the fact that she had won the Flint-Wood betting pool she and the rest of the staff had up in the Professor's lounge. McGongall had won the last two— Marietta Edgecombe and Roger Davis and Warren Worthington and Rachel Beckings —and Sprout the one before that at the start of the year, leaving Lucy to believe that perhaps she truly was terrible at guessing.

_Bill had always claimed she was horrible at it— between the answer she'd given for the Honeydukes Guess How Many Jelly Beans In the Jar contest and answers whenever Charlie or the other Weasley children excitedly asked Guess What it wasn't as if his claim was entirely baseless but—Who's bad at guessing Now Weasley, Lucy thought smugly._

_Both boys pushed away from each other when Remus made a sputtering noise in the back of his throat,_

_"Professor!" Flint panicked, his eyes wide and his clothes ruffled, Wood, mutely, looked at Lucy and Remus harried. "We were—Wood and I—"_

_"We're snogging?" Lucy snickered. Remus' hands were still on her waist and she could feel the skin of his fingers dig into her clothing as he tried not to smile._

_"No!" Flint spat, "I would never do something as dugisting as that," he denied, he looked over at the Gryffindor boy with an angry, heartbroken expression in his eyes, "Wood and I, we were fighting!"_

_"Flint said Puddlemore sucked," Wood said, his own brows creased, hurt. His voice lacked any conviction as he told Lucy and Remus the reason they'd been 'fighting'._

_"Oh, because it looked like you were—"_

_"We weren't! I wouldn't! I'm not like that!" Flints cheeks were pink with indignation and his lips were pressed together and for a moment he reminded Lucy of herself, age thirteen and pacing the length of Bill and Charlie's room over one memorable Christmas vacation._

_Bill, despite it being the middle of the night, had kicked Charlie out of bed and onto the couch when Lucy had shaken him awake, the ginger boy sat up in bed tried and only half alert but listening as Lucy ranted about how she'd had a dream of the Hufflepuff Prefect Jane and how just before she'd woken up dream-Jane had almost kissed her._

_"—I'm not like that Bill," she said close to tears, "I'm not a freak!"_

_"No one's saying you are Lucy," Bill told her._

_"But they will! Merlin!" Lucy hyperventilated as she sunk to the floor, hugging herself, all her life she'd been taught how proper purebloods acted, how they poured tea and sat and what they knew was and wasn't acceptable and sure Lucy knew it was all crap but something both worlds— her families and the real one —had showed her was that she— girls who liked girls, who dreamed of beautiful Prefects kissing them in the field just near the Forbidden forest —was a freak._

_The world already hated her for things she couldn't help— her name, her brother, her cousin, all the things she was born into bearing —and Lucy, she couldn't, wouldn't be able to take it if it hated her for this too. She couldn't help this either, it had just happened._

_She didn't want to like Jane, she swore it; she promised Bill, crying, her shoulders shaking. And Bill got up— his blanket falling half off the bed and onto the floor with him —got on the floor with her and took her into his arms; they were long and gangly, without a hint of muscle being attached to them, all pale freckled skin and bones._

_"You're not a freak," Bill told her seriously, acceptingly, his eyes burned in a way which caused Lucy to look away, it was as if she were looking at the sun._

_"But—"_

_"No," Bill told her, "I want anyone who has a problem with you liking Jane or any other girl for that matter to come deal with me, dare them to say some dumb shit after that," he muttered darkly._

_"You don't think I'm freak?" Lucy wondered in a small voice._

_"Not for liking girls no," Bill cracked a small grin as he looked at her, he nudged her with the honey elbow, "For not liking pumpkin? Sure."_

_"It's fucking gross Bill!" Lucy defended, a smile on her own face._

_"You're a witch Lucy, everything is pumpkins!"_

_"Cause you white people like bland foods! You see something with no flavors and you're all like yes, this is what we'll base all out meals around!"_

"Really?" Lucy wondered, "Cause I am." Flint blinked at Lucy. "When I was in school I was caught with the older Hufflepuff Prefect Jane." Flint contained to stare at Lucy as if she'd grown a second and third head. "Come on Mr. Flint let's take a walk."

Lucy stepped away from Remus— though not before giving his hand a gentle squeeze —and up to Marcus Flint, who nodded. Lucy lead him down the hall away from Remus and Oliver Wood and to her empty office— neither pureblood spoke as the walked the corridors —where she made sure to lock the door. Marcus took the stool directly in front of her desk and when she was situated in her seat Lucy took a deep breath through her nose and seriously told the Flint heir,

"You're not a freak."

_Yes I am_ was his automatic reply.

"No you're not."

"Yes I am! I was—" Flint cut himself off, "I was kissing Oliver," he hissed.

"That doesn't make you a freak Marcus."

"No to my father that would make me an abomination, scum." To her mother, had Walburga Black been sane when Lucy had been caught with Jane and the letter had been sent home, Lucy was sure her mother would have had more than just a few choice words about who Lucy was found with.

"It makes you human, Marcus you were born liking boys the same was you were born being able to use magic." Marcus scoffed.

"Trust me I know, I was born broken," he said with the same bitter rage Lucy was not unknown to hearing.

"You're not—"

"Please don't tell me I'm not broken, Oliver's tried." So she didn't. Lucy leaned back in her chair.

"You don't have to worry about Remus or I writing home." No one had worried when they sent the letter to Grimmauld Place, no one feared the reaction of Walburga Black and no one feared what it might have cost Lucy had her mother been sane enough to comprehend the letter.

Lucy wasn't going to be like that; George and Ophelia, a letter home about a boy and a girl who had known one another since they were eight— to Molly and Arthur and Andromeda and Ted —was harmless. A letter to Sir Flint about his only child and a half blood boy?

Lucy shifted in her chair at the thought.

"I liked her eyes," Lucy said to Marcus who looked up at Lucy oddly, "Jane," she clarified, "I liked her eyes. Her smile too but her eyes? People say Hufflepuffs are particularly good finders and Merlin," Lucy sighed almost dramatically as she recalled the girl, "Jane looked like she knew every secret in this castle." She smiled at the memory of the other girl, Jane had been slightly older and a windshirl romance that had ended when Jane had been arrested and sentenced to six months in Azkaban.

"Your mother accepted that?" Marcus wondered.

"My mother was too insane to comprehend the letter that'd been sent home. The Weasleys did though, I'd been staying with them since the Christmas of my first year and well, Mr. Weasley sat me down and for a second I thought he was about to toss me out of the house."

"He didn't?" Marcus Flint wondered and Lucy understood why, Blood Traitor or not the Weasleys were pureblood— Arthur Weasleys own mother had been Cedrella Black —and had grown up in the same small world that told Marcus and Lucy they were wrong for wanting to kiss Jane or Marcus or someone else of the same gender.

"Nah, he gave me the same talk he'd given Bill, my best friend, his oldest." Lucy blushed at the memory of Mr. Weasley stumbling over what to say because she was with Jane neither could get pregnant and he wasn't quite sure how a sexual relationship between two girls went; he'd claimed to have a vague idea but made sure Lucy walked away knowing always receive what she'd gave and give what she'd received but never do anything that makes her uncomfortable.

All in all neither Mr. Weasley or Lucy could looked each other in the eye for the month that followed the talk.

"Oh."

"You don't need me to give you talk, do you?" Lucy asked. Marcus straightened up, his face red,

"Wh—no! Merlin no!" Flint shook his head fiercely, Lucy laughed loudly at the young man's reaction, the corners of her eyes crinkled against her grin.

"Okay—Hey," Lucy told him breathlessly, softly and in the same soft tone Mr. Weasley has used on her all those years ago, "I like both you and , I just want to make sure the two of you are being safe."

"We know the spells," Flint muttered embarrassed.

"Being safe in a relationship doesn't just mean knowing how to cast a safe sex spell, it means not feeling like you have to do something for your partner because they want you too, or because you're scared—"

"—Oliver's a good guy." Marcus cut her off, "A really," He stressed, "Good guy." Marcus looked at his chewed down fingers and picked at cuticles, "Better than I deserve."

"That's not true."

"Isn't it?" Flint shot back, "I'm an idiot, I can be downright cruel and I'm a freak."

"You are not a freak," Lucy told him once more, there was in edge in her voice that left no room for Marcus Flint to argue. He smiled wryly at the Quidditch instructor,

"Maybe one day I'll believe that ma'am."

"I'll be here waiting for with your told you so," she told him earnestly.

* * *

**March 6, 1994**

Hagrid's home, the two room wooden box that far too small for the large man and far too big for anyone to ever properly fit someone hadn't changed since Lucy had graduated. Of course the mustard yellow throw pillow on his proportionally sized armchair was new and the framed pictures of dangerous creatures magically stuck to the wall were all new as well but the scratched up table and giant wooden dining chairs and the rock cakes Hagrid still served to company were all the same.

Hagrid, Lucy and Remus sat around the formers dining table, old legal books from the Hogwarts library were piled in the corner of the room and the Hippogriff Buckbeak laid on Hagrids bed as the old dog fang rested at Lucy's feet under the table, making at the rock cake Lucy had discreetly passed him.

"I—Er, once found Lucy and her group of misfits tryin' to sneak into the forest one nigh," Hagrid told Remus fondly, Lucy looked at Hagrid wondering which time he was talking about, he had spent a quarter of his time chasing Charlie, Mia And Barnaby— and her and Bill by extension —away from the forest.

"Why were you trying to sneak into the forest?" Remus wondered.

"Dunno," Lucy shrugged, she looked at Hagrid, "Which time was this?"

"How often did you sneak into the forest?" Remus asked, he leaned against his forearms which rested flat against the table,

"More than they should've," Hagrid teased and Lucy smiled innocently, "When that boy, what's his name," Hagrid snapped his fingers, "Benji?"

"Ben?"

"Yeah, when he said he wanted to 'unt yer."

"What?" Remus wheezed. Lucy understood the cause for laughter, he had met Ben Cooper only a few months prior and even at twenty Ben Cooper still looked ready to cry at whatever the world would throw at him.

"He wasn't going to hunt us," Lucy said, she looked at Remus from the corner of her eyes, "There's this muggle game called manhunt, it's like tag but at night, and Ben had the idea at lunch so we all made plans to sneaks out after curfew."

"Alright, yeah I can't quite see Ben harming anyone." Lucy's smile faulted at the memory of her sixth year when Ben, possessed, had injured both Charlie and Mia enough to land them in the hospital wing. "

"Bucky wouldn' 'arm anyone," Hagrid muttered over the rim of teacup, the Hippogriff in question shifted on the bed in the room behind them, "'E's a good bird, great Hippogriff."

"I'm sure he is Hagrid but you know how the court is," Lucy said sympathetically. Wizengamot, despite having Dumbledore as Head Warlock of the court, was still incredibly susceptible to bribery and intimidation and if the witch or wizard pulling the strings knew which court members to go after— Devon, Harper, Whitehall, and greedy, weak willed, spineless, justices like them —they could control just how a case would end up.

It was, without a doubt, was Lucius Malfoy had done to condemn the Hippogriff Buckbeak to death.

"Bastards!" Hagrids flat hand hit the table with a loud bang, Lucy jumped in her seat.

"I'm sure there's something we can do," Remus said, concern flashing through his eyes, but Hagrid nodded.

"Hermione and— Er —Meiri, and that— uh —boy of hers Theo, they've— Er —been down here almost everyday helpin' me look through books," Hargrid set his cup of tea on the table and rubbed his hands flat over the messy lions nest of hair on top of his head, "But we can't find nothing."

_I could help,_ Lucy thought, _Realistically I could solve this problem with a snap of my fingers._

_But you won't,_ the voice of her mother sneered knowingly in rebuttal , _You won't risk it._ Lucy stood up, Remus and Hagrid looked at her, both of startled by the sudden movement.

"I need to go," Lucy said, "I forgot— you just reminded me —I promised Meiri that I would help her with Potions work." It was a plausible excuse, if there was a single person in all of Hogwarts worse at Potions then Neville Longbottom it was Meiri Prewett.

While her Potions never quite managed to boil through her cauldrons as they usually did to one young Mr. Longbottom, Meiri Prewetts potions always did seem to leave someone— usually Hannah Abbot who constantly go paired up with her —in the hospital wing.

"Oh, well good luck I've heard Hermione tryin' to 'plain it to Meiri." Apparently, after having her hair set on fire and nearly poisoned a total of three times, the bushy haired girl had refused to help Meiri with her Potions work anymore. Remus rose to his feet.

"I should be going to Hagrid, I need to grade papers. Thank you though, for having us." Hagrid got to his feet like the gracious host he was and lead Lucy and Remus to the uneven wooden door, Fang stood between Hagrids feet and Lucy scratched the English mastiffs head.

"Bye bye baby," Lucy cooed before looking at Hagrid, "Thanks for the tea."

"Come 'round soon," Hagrid said and Lucy, with a forced smile, nodded. Remus places his hand on the small of her back as they walked back up the trail to the school.

"So?" Remus wondered in a low voice as they walked away from Hagrid's hut, "What's the real reason you rushed out because I know you don't have any plans to help Meiri with her work."

Lucy had made a point to tell Remus that Meiri had told her Theo Nott was helping Daphne Greengrass with her Charms work so she would be spending the whole day with Ron, Harry and Hermione, not at all bothered if Theo was tutoring a girl he thought was pretty.

Lucy stopped walking, the pair of them were still at the base of the stoney hill but far enough from the hut where she didn't have to whisper.

"I could help Hagrid, help his Hippogriff," Lucy answered, guilt gnawed at the bottom of her heart.

"That's great, why didn't you saw anyt—you aren't going to are you?" Lucy shook her head,

"I can't."

"But you just said—"

"I can tell Lucius to back off and leave the Hippogriff alone but he'd hate me." Remus' brows came together,

"But you hate him why do you care if he hates you?"

"Cause he's scared of me," Lucy told him, "I can get more out of him if he's scared. The moment he hates me, when he rather face me then do whatever I want that's when I've lost him."

"Why is he scared of you?" Remus wondered.

_Headmaster Dumbledore had allowed sixteen year olds Lucy and Bill off of school grounds in order to attend Walburga Blacks funeral. Bill in the same shabby hand-me-down robes his father had worn to his uncle's funeral, and Lucy in a plan, but beautiful long sleeved black dress that's neckline was a turtleneck and skirt ended just below her knees, hiding all of her scars, stood outside the second floor bathroom at the overflowing Black Manor._

_Walburga Black was not beloved but she was a Black and therefore her funeral would be as big as her father's, or her uncles or aunts or any other Black that died before her._

_While the Black manor— the house her cousins had grown up in, the one that held all the Black family galas Lucy had been too young to attend before they stopped and which cellar floor was still stained brown with the blood of unnamed war victims —hadn't been in the Black family's possession nearly as long as Grimmauld Place had, it did however hold the Black family cemetery just a little more than two miles away from the house._

_"I don't want to do this Bill," Lucy told him, "Cissy, she wants me to give the eulogy? I can't to that—what am I supposed to say, I'm sorry my mums dead she was great and I'll miss her but not really because she was a horribly, mad, abusive woman who not only didn't have a loving bone in her body but constantly tried to murder me?" Lucy hissed._

_Her mother had been dead a week and her cousin had given her no notice on the eulogy, apparently as her daughter it should have been expected._

_Bill placed both his hands on her shoulders reassuringly._

_"Then don't give the eulogy," he said._

_"But she was my mother Bill—"_

_"Exactly, it's your mother's funeral meaning you don't have to a damn thing you don't want to," he told her._

_"I don't?" Bill shook his head,_

_"You don't even have to be here if you don't want too." And it was as if a lightbulb went off above her head._

_"Let's go back to the school then, Dirk from Ravenclaw is supposed to be throwing a party and I wanna smashed." Bill grinned brilliantly at her, he clapped her on the back as the pair of them moved away from the bathroom and down the hall to the staircase._

_"If you pass out I'm drawing on you in marker," Bill said._

_"That's only if you don't pass out before me." Bill, despite the fact he didn't look it, was a lightweight while Lucy, all nearly ten stones soaking wet, could easily drink Barnaby Lee under the table. Though when she crashed she crashed hard._

_The pair of them snickered only to run into an older man, his nose was sharp and his cheekbones were high while his eyebrows had been plucked thin. He looked at Bill in distaste, as if he'd just smelled rotten eggs._

_"Sir Rowle," Lucy nodded. Next to her Bill nodded his head and extended a pleasant Hello._

_"Lady Black," He didn't address Bill verbally, though he did sneer in his direction. "I'm so sorry for your loss. You mother was a wonderful woman." Lucy, glared at the older man placed a firm hand on Bills back._

_"Thank you Sir Rowel, I'm sure your words would mean a lot to my mother," the older man's eyes narrowed at the meaning of her words; Your condolence means jack shit "Though I do think you forgot to address my best friend Bill Weasley. He's here because I personally asked him to be. One might think it odd that you might be so cold towards the good friend of the grieving orphaned daughter to the woman who's funeral you're attending," Lucy told him icily._

_"I was invited here personally—"_

_"By my cousin's husband yes, not by a Black." Bills cheek lost mass as he bit the inside of it in order not to laugh, Lucy's eyes burned almost violently as she looked up at the older man who glared down at her before turning to Bill._

_"Hello."_

_"Hi." Sir Rowel growled in the back of his throat._

_"Speaking of, you wouldn't happen to know where my cousin and her husband are, would you Sir Rowel?"_

_"Last I checked they were still in the library Lady Black," Rowel managed behind clenched teeth._

_"Thank you Sir Rowel, I hope you enjoy the wine, I hear its imported," Lucy told him. The older man didn't reply as he stalked around Lucy and Bill, steam practically bowling out of his ears. Bill turned to Lucy._

_"You didn't have to do that," he told her with a grin._

_"Course I did, you're my best friend. Let some stuffy old timer say something about it, I'll cry and they'll look like the monster that made Lady Black cry at her mother's funeral."_

_"I think you're supposed to cry at funerals," Bill told her fondly._

_"Nah, not at these elitist funerals," Lucy said. When her uncle had died in her second year and her aunt the year after that she had learned at the behest of her cousin Narcissa that this was the equivalent of a thunderdome and the first to show actual human emotion lost. "Now come on let's find Cissy and get lost."_

_It took nearly ten minutes to walk from the foyer to the large Black manor library and when they got to the large oak doors Sirs Goyle and Crabbe stood at them, waiting._

_"Sir Goyle? Sir Crabbe? Is everything alright?" Lucy came up behind them asking, both men jumped, and like Rowel looked distastefully at Bill Weasley._

_"Yes Lady Black," Crabbe said, "Lucius just asked for a moment with his wife."_

_"It appears that your cousin was upset at the sudden loss of your mother," Goyle added, his smile was viscous. It reminded Lucy of a rabid wolf looming over its prey, blood thirsty and looking for its pound of flesh._

_Lucy didn't like it, she didn't like how he smiled when talking about her cousins— who though she wasn't close too, was still her cousin and Blacks stick together —emotional state._

_"If you anything Sir Goyle then you'd know my mother was dying the moment my brother was reported dead." And just as she said that a cry— her cousin Narcissa —echoed from behind the library doors. Lucy, with her wand free of her hair, pushed past both surprised males and threw open the door._

_Standing over her cousin, who laid half on the ground with a hand pressed to her cheek, was Lucius Malfoy._

_"Confringo!" Lucius dove out of the way of Lucy's spell and the bookcase behind him exploded. Bill with his own wand out turned his back to Lucy and looked at both Goyle and Crabbe, both of whom had their own wands out._

_"Bombarda!" Malfoy once more rolled out of the way as he struggled to pull his wand from his robes, Narcissa scrambled to the far off couch away from the fighting a small trickle of blood ran down her nose._

_"Diffendio!" A long bloody cut that when he moved opened enough to show bone, appeared across Lucius malfoy's leg from his kneecap to his calf. He screamed in agony. He got his wand from his pocket._

_"Ava—"_

_"Expillarmus!" His wand landed in Lucy's hand and she stalked closer to her in-law who lay helplessly on the floor as blood pooled around him. She turned, with wild eyes, to Crabb and Goyle, the ladder who stood without a wand, "The funeral is over!" Lucy shouted at them, "Tell everyone to get out! Now!"_

_Bill, once Goyle stumbled back, the shoulder of his robes in Crabbe hand, tossed the older wizard his wand. And then they were gone, rushing down the hall. Bill turned to Narcissa who didn't rebuke his kind, soft spoken offer to heal her nose or bruised cheek._

_Lucy looked down at Lucius and grabbed him by the lapels of his robes, he screamed in pain as he moved, "You are never going to touch my cousin again because if you do, I'm going to make what Bellatrix did to the Longbottoms look like child's play, is that clear?"_

_Blacks stick together above all else, it's why blood traitors were treated as harshly as they were, they violated the first rule they'd been taught, even before all their pureblood is better bullshit. Blacks stick together above all else, Lucy had never wanted to be a Black— she still didn't —but she was and though Narcissa was technically a Malfoy she'd been born a Black and for that Lucy would defend her._

_Lucius nodded. Lucy threw him to the ground and turned to her cousin._

_"Are you alright?" She wondered as she took the seat next to Narcissa. Bill didn't look back at Lucius nor did he look at Lucy oddly or fearfully but rather with a small smile._

_"I—yes I'm fine."_

_"Is this the first time?" Lucy wondered and Narcissa nodded._

_"I can kill him, if you'd like. Bill can take you upstairs to Draco and Ophelia and no one would be the wiser, we'll say he slipped and fell." Narcissa looked at Lucy with a kindness she had never before seen on her face._

_"He's my sons father." Before this perhaps Narcissa would have claimed to love him. Lucy nodded accordingly and rose to her feet, Bill did as well._

_"Well have tea over Christmas holiday?" Lucy said rather then asked, "You'll let me know how you are."_

_"Thank you."_

_"Blacks stick together," Lucy said._

_"Above all else."_

"I didn't kill him," Lucy said to Remus who looked shocked at the answer.

"What?"

"The day of my mothers funeral he hit my cousin Narcissa, I could have killed him and he knows it— it's why he walks with that stupid cane of his, the healers could never quite fix his kneecap —and he knows that I'd have no qualms about doing so."

"You were sixteen when your mother died."

"I was sixteen when I threatened to throw Ben off the Astronomy tower." Lucy was sixteen when she started to lose it, when the title of Lady Black was thrust upon her and her knees buckled under the weight she didn't want and the dark shadow of her family caught her by the ankle.

_I'm a monster,_ Lucy thought solemnly. Remus, as if able to read her mind, grabbed her and intertwined their fingers together. He didn't look disgusted at her or frightened or anything of the such. No Remus looked at her with such care and raw emotions in her eyes that Lucy felt her heart beat painfully in her chest.

_I love you._

….

Later that night Ophelia, Tahani, Harry, Hermione and Theo, along with all the Weasley children sat around Lucy's office. Percy and Hermione debated magical law in the corner, Ophelia ever so often chiming in while Ron, Harry, Ginny and Tahani sat on the floor playing exploding snap laughing when one of the others cards exploded and shit talking each other before that. The twins and Theo sat with Meiri as she poured over her Potions notes, the three of them trying to help her— one of the twins every so often would take Meiris second hand Potions textbook and hit himself in the face with it —and Lucy sat back in her desk chair watching them, smiling.

She could picture Bill and Charlie and Mia and Dora being in the room with her— they, and Remus who truly did have to grade tests —were all that were missing from the picture in front of her.

Lucy looked at the picture of hers and Bills graduation, the framed picture a six year old Ginny had painted for her as a gift sat on the corner of her desk, Dora, with bright pink hair tackled Bill and Lucy shouted had been hugging each other with one arm, Barnaby, Mia and Charlie quickly joined in on the dog pile while Penny and Rowan laugh in the background. The camera Mrs. Weasley has been holding shook with laughed as the teens on the floor in front of her rolled around on the grass.

Life was good, it wasn't perfect but it was good.

* * *

**May 7, 1994**

In Lucy's humble option the first Saturday of May had started off quite enough, metaphorically of course because it was the first day of the season that was warm enough to allow the students to take a dip in the Black lake without having to go to Madam Pomfrey with a case of hypothermia and frostbite meaning that the castle was buzzing with excitement and anticipation for warmer weather.

At least most of the castle had caught hay fever. Percy Weasley sat in Lucy office, the pair of them eating cookies and tea as they talked. Percy was terrified of being stuck in his family's shadow, of being poor and a nobody for the rest of his life and Lucy understood to an extent.

While Lucy didn't get why Percy was scared to be known as Percy Weasley for the rest of his life— Lucy would take being poor and a redhead over all the riches in her vault and what she'd been through any day —she did sympathize with him. She knew what being trapped in your family's shadow did, how suffocating it was and though their circumstances were not the same she understood Percy's fear to an extent.

"Just remember you parents love you Percy," Lucy told him, "Alright? The twins too, they're obnoxious little shits but they love you."

"I know," Percy said, "I'm just—I know what people think of father and the family and what if they don't give me a chance to prove I'm my own person?"

"Then fuck them and prove them wrong. If they won't give you a chance to prove your Percy Weasley smartest boy in all of Hogwarts then make them," Lucy told him and Percy bashfully smiled at Lucy and ducked his head.

Her office door burst open and dragging in a reluctant looking Theo Nott an enraged Meiri Prewett stormed in. She looked at her cousin, "I need to talk to Lucy Percy, get out."

Both Lucy and Percy's jaws fell open because Meiri had always been the child who remembered her p's and q's, even when he didn't.

"What?" Percy floundered.

"Drop it Meiri Madam Lucy's talking to your cousin, it's okay," Theo muttered tugging on Meiris friendship bracelet. He wore a matching one on his opposite arm.

"No!" Meiri shouted, her lips tightly drawn together, "It's not okay—Percy get out! This is serious!" Percy looked fleetingly at Lucy who nodded at him to leave, and then concernedly at his cousin and her friend before he rose to his feet and left.

"Alright what's the matter?" Lucy asked.

"It's nothing—"

"Theos father is hurting him!" Meiri cut Theo off with a dark look. "Stop saying it's nothing Theo! It's not nothing, he's hurting you!" Meiri turned to Lucy she grabbed Theos arm— she was careful with him though, Lucy noted, that Meiri touched Theo like he was made of glass— "He has the same scar you have under your collar bone." Meiri lifted up Theos long sleeve and showed Lucy, whose blood turned to both a boiling fire and bone chilling ice.

Exactly like the scar under her own collarbone was one on Theo Notts right arm, starching from the outer side of wrist bone to his elbow.

Lucy wondered if it was possible for human beings to breathe fire because as she tried to regine in her fast beating heart and her racing blood thirsty thoughts she could have sworn she had become one of the dragons Charlie and Mia always so fondly spoke about.

Lucy looked at Theo, she wasn't just a Meiris pseudo-older sister, she was technically a professor and she was sure there were rules that disallowed her from storming away from her desk and dueling Sir Nott wherever she found him. "I need to hear it from you Theo, I can only help you if I hear it from you."

"Why?" He asked, _What can you do,_ he hadn't said it but Lucy had heard it.

"I can get you away from your father."

"How can you do that?" Murder was always an option, but Lucy didn't tell him that, if someone had offered to murder mother at thirteen, even in spite of the almost behedding and constant murder attempts she would had hesitated. Because Walburga Black was as much her mother as Edward Nott was Theo's father.

Instead she straightened up in her seat, "I'm a Black and when we want something nothing stops us."

"And what happens to me if I do tell you?" He turned to Meiri almost angrily, "What happens to me then? I'm put in an orphanage?"

"No, Theodore," Lucy got the boy to look at her, "I swear to you if you tell me the truth about your father I won't let anything happen to you. I'll make sure it's all okay."

"And if you can't and my father finds out what happens to me then?"

"Nothing because I would duel your father myself before I allowed him to get near you again."

"Why? Just cause I'm Meiris friend?"

"Because you're a kid and no one deserves to go through what you have."_ What we have._ Theo was quiet for a moment, a crease formed between his eyebrows and he frowned, and then he reaches over and takes Meiris hand in his.

"It all started when he murdered my mother, I was five…"

…

Lucy, after telling Theo and Meiri they could stay in her room and pick through her board games and kitchen cupboards until she came back, had gone to Dumbledore and called a staff meeting. All the professors, from Snape to Hagrid to Babbling who so rarely left her office, littered the Headmasters office.

Dumbledore sat in his desk chair, his half moon glasses twinkled in under the candle light and in the seat next to him Professor McGonagalls knuckles turned white as Lucy recounted what Theo Nott had told her— how when his mother had gotten sick when he was five and his father, while he watched from the corner of the room, held a pillow over Monica Notts face and ever since then he'd turned his rage onto the Theo, beating and cursing him whenever he felt fit —Professor Spouts fingers pressed against her lips.

"And what would you like me to do?" Dumbledore asked evenly as Lucy finished.

"Get him away from his father!" She exclaimed.

"And do what with the boy, you said yourself he won't go to an orphanage," Dumbledore replied.

"Headmaster, Albus," McGongall said, "Surely there must be something we can do? If Edgar Nott did murder his wife—"

"—There's no proof—"

"—Mr. Nott claims to have seen it!" Flitwitck exclaimed his own high pitched voice full of indignation. Flitwick, like the other Professors took notice to the students that excelled in his class and right after Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy, Theo Nott was a wiz at Charms.

"Eight years ago when he was five, those memories wouldn't hold up in court and you know it Filius." And there was no law against abusing children if an obscurus did not result and even then when one did the parent or guardian— if not a muggle, which they more often than not were —were tried for creating and harboring a dangerous creature and unleashing it onto the public, but not for the crimes against the child.

"So what?" Lucy snarled, "We do nothing?"

"We can do nothing."

"Your the high fucking Warlock!" Lucy shouted at him and the other professors jumped, Dumbledore however did not. He folded his hands in his lap and blinked at her.

"And because of that I am confined within the limits of the law."

"Or perhaps you just don't give a shit." Dumbledore's eyes darkened as Lucy stood in front of him righteously, Sprout and Burbage both made gasping sounds as Hagrid roared to defend the Headmaster. Remus made a choking sound behind her and Flitwick squeaked and nearly toppled off his stool.

"Ms. Black!" McGongall hissed. The only who who did not react where Snape and Siniestria, both of whom stood against the back wall.

"Is that how you feel?" Dumbledore stood from his chair and though Lucy felt a bolt of fear shoot through her body she didn't show it. She did however hold her head up higher. She was a Black and Blacks don't show fear in the face of advisory.

They crush it.

"Barnaby Lee, Muerla Snyde, myself, Harry Potter, Tahani Al Jamil, Theo Nott, I'm sensing a pattern Headmaster. You're supposed to care for the wellbeing of the students and what? That stops the minute they get on the express to go home?" Dumbledore sat on the corner of the desk as everyone in the room watched him.

"What would you have me do Ms. Black kidnap children from their homes when I see fit and hide them away until the school year starts?"

"Yes! Your the greatest wizard of our time, or was that just a nice piece of propaganda the ministry predated around during the war—"

"—Lucy—" Remus hissed, but she paid him no mind,

"—Don't worry kids you're safe because we have Dumbledore on our side," she sneered. "Thank god Harry Potter came around and saved us cause I don't see how you could have if you can't save the children you're entrusted with protecting."

"If that's how you feel figure something out," Dumbledore told her.

"Don't worry, I will," And then, in a very Snape like fashion she spun on her heel and stormed out of the Headmaster's office, her robes billowing behind her as her mind raged.

"Hey! He—Lucretia!" Lucy, two corridors away from the Headmaster's Office stopped and turned to the portrait of a breezy lake and saw her great-great grandfather Phineas Nigellus, panting in the picture.

"What?" She growled out at her ancestor, he had been long dead by the time she'd been born but after Sirius had left and before Regulus had died Regulus used to have the previous Hogwarts Headmaster check in on the young girl, afterwards he had stopped visiting his portraits at Grimmauld Place.

"Talking to Dumbledore like that, it took guts and last time I checked you weren't a Gryffindor."

"No I just seem only one out of the two of us who gives a damn about these students."

"So what are you going to do hm? Kidnap the Nott boy and hide him from his father?" Phineas Black wondered more amused then he should have been.

"If I have too," Lucy told him seriously and her great-great grandfathers eyebrows shot up. The sound of rushing footsteps had both Lucy and Phineas turning. At the mouth of the corridor was Remus Lupin, slightly disheveled.

"Come to yell at me?" Lucy asked prickly. She wouldn't fault Remus if he defended Dumbledore instead of her— Dumbledore had given him a job when no one else would, a second chance to see Harry Potter and all she was, was the woman he was sleeping with—it would hurt and her heart would be crushed but she could fault him no more than she could fault Hagrid.

"No," Remus shook his head as he approached her, "I just figured two heads are better than one." Phineas cleared his throat and Remus looked at the familiar portrait. "Mr— Headmaster Black—three heads are better than two?" Phineas Black made humoring sound but didn't expand after that.

Lucy smiled at Remus and her great-great grandfather muttered angrily in purple framed the portrait. "Well then let's get a move on then," and the pair of them, with Phineas Nigellus Black trailing behind them, hoping from portrait to portrait, snidely commenting on the fact that she was holding hands with this boy— Remus blushed deeply as Phineas Black called him boy, a sly smile played on his lips —walked off towards Lucy's office.

Theo and Meiri, sitting on the floor of Lucy's room looked up at Remus and Lucy, away from their game of monopoly— Arthur Weasley had given Lucy the muggle game one long ago Christmas, grinning and though she reared played it she refused to throw it out or give it away —neither, if either third year noticed, of them commented on how Lucy's hand was still very much tucked into Remus' when they opened her door.

"How'd it go, what did Headmaster Dumbledore say?" Meiri worried. Lucy looked at Theo,

"You won't be going back to your father's."

"Is he going to be arrested then?" Theo wondered and Lucy left Remus' side and sat on the floor between the two thirteen year old, Remus sat on the edge of her bed.

"No, the Headmaster pointed out that aside from your memories there is no proof of what your father did—"

"But memories are admissible!" Theo argued.

"No those of a five year old, but Theo I assure you—" Lucy placed a gentle hand over the boys and smiled reassuringly at him, "You won't be going back to your father's nor to an orphanage."

"You keep saying that but if I'm not going home then where will I be going?" The young boy wondered.

"I don't know, but nothing, come hell or high water, is going to allow me to let you go back to your father, Alright." Theo was quiet for a moment and he stared at the metal pieces on the board— the wheelbarrow and the dog —and then with a wave of relief in his eyes he smiled at Lucy.

It wasn't a large grin or anything of the sort but it was a smile nonetheless.

"Thank you," he told her softly and Lucy shrugged,

"You deserve it Theo. Now the two of clean up the mess and get to dinner, no one needs you guys wasting away."

"But I haven't kicked Theos arse!" Meiri pouted and Lucy giggled, and Theo blindly pointed out she was losing.

"I could still win, with a little resonance and hard work—"

"Hufflepuff," Theo interjected fondly and Meiri stuck her tongue out at Theo; Lucy looked back at Remus who watched them fondly from his spot on her bed as he leaned against the ball of his palm.

"Very eloquent Prewett." Meiri went to flip Theo off when Lucy caught her hand,

"How about we don't flip people off in front of professors?"

"Yes mum," Meiri grumbled as Theo collected the colorful money and deeds and she started picking the hotels and houses off the board.

…

Later that night— or early the next morning however you would classify two thirty in the am —after monopoly had been put back in her closet Lucy and Remus and the of her great-great grandfather, along with Professors Sprout and Flitwick, sat around the tiny table in Lucy's room.

Plates of half eaten food sat idly as the table as Lucy's quill tapped the parchment in her hands. While each of the four Professors had of course agreed to draft a rough draft a law that would create protections for children against their parents— which was no immediate help as the court was known to drag its feet, despite the money Lucy would pump into the cause —none of them had any long term solutions to save Theo Nott from his father and Tahani Al Jamil from her parents.

"I could kill him," Lucy mused openly, half serious as she focused on the empty Theo Nott column of her parchment.

"You're not serious are you?" Sprout wondered. Lucy shrugged rubbing her eyes tiredly.

"Maybe."

"We'll save that one for last," Remus had told Lucy, a small half of a smile on his lips, before Flitwick reasoned that perhaps the Headmaster had been onto something and that they should just kidnap the children who needed it; he had called it a necessary evil.

"Is that really an option though?" Sprout asked Flitwick who shrugged.

"You stopped going home when you entered Hogwarts," Phineas Nigellus said to Lucy, drawing all the eyes in the room to the empty portrait frame that hung over the fireplace. "Why?"

"The Weasleys took me in, Mrs. and Mr. Weasley found out about my mother and refused to—oh." Phineas looked at Lucy knowingly.

"What?" Remus rubbed his eyes.

"Would it be ethical?" Sprout asked. "For students to live with a professor?"

"Pomona we're considering kidnapping and murder, ethics went out the window around midnight," Flitwick said to Sprout, whos face twitched because he wasn't wrong.

"But my apartment has one bedroom."

"Are you the heiress to the Noble and Most ancient house of Black or are you not? Don't tell me you sold all the Black family properties."

"No," Lucy shook her head and bit her thumb nail.

Remus shifted in his seat as he reached out for his glass of water, "Alright, so we have the means to hide Theo and Tahani but how are we're getting them."

"You're a Black," Phineas Nigellus said to Lucy flippantly, "Tell Cantankerous' son you're taking his child and throw a pouch of money at the man—the Notts were never truly ones for family loyalty."

"So were accoutering Mr. Nott then?" Sprout didn't sound as opposed to the idea as she probably should. "What do we do in Miss. Al Jamils case? Her parents are muggleborns."

"Don't send her home?" Lucy suggested, "I mean I'll ask Tahani what she wants of course but if you parents don't allow her back and make her suppress her magic kidnapping her will be better than anything the ministry will do."

The Ministry would obligate her parents and kill her if she were to turn into an obscurus.

"So were doing it the Black way then?" Remus asked bleary eyed and teasingly.

"Guess so."

"I probably shouldn't be condoning this," Sprout said to the table.

"Are you going to object?" Lucy asked the older Professor.

"No."

"Are you going to inform Headmaster Dumbeldore?" Flitwick implored.

"No."

"Then," Lucy said standing up, "I do believe we're done here for the night."

* * *

**May 8, 1994**

Panting both Remus and Lucy— both naked, sweaty and covered in each others fluids —laid next to one another in Remus' bed. Lucy's thighs quivered as she moved to curled herself around Remus' body, his arm slipped under her head and his hand pressed flat against her back.

Tenderly Lucy kissed the underside of his jaw. The candlelight in the room burned from the wall mounted candelabras, immunating half of his face.

_I love him,_ Lucy thought with such emotion her chest threatened to burst, _I love him_. There had been Jane and Adien since Lucy had first discovered she liked people romantically but she'd never loved either of them. Jane had been a schoolyard love affair and Adien had been someone to fuck when she got stressed, to fight and argue with and then ignore until she'd needed another release, but Remus?

Lucy traces the outline of his face under the light; Remus she loved. Remus who she could listen to all day— no matter if he talked about Redcaps or if there truly were a difference between light and dark magic —Remus who Lucy could sit in silence with and be happy with. Remus whos kisses sent jolts of lighting through her veins and who made her feel like she was flying by just looking at her with a smile on his face.

Remus who she didn't deserve; who despite knowing the monster she, was stayed with her when she cried, who kissed her forehead and held her hand when she was nervous, who looked past her family name at her. Lucy was in love with that Remus Lupin, not just the werewolf he simply thought he was—because she loved him in spite of his lycanthropy too.

She loved him.

Remus turned to Lucy, "What's going on in that head of yours?" He wondered. Lucy met his eyes,

"Nothing." Remus pinched her hip— "Liar" —and though Lucy yelped she didn't try to escape from his arms.

"Alright," Lucy giggled, she leaned over his chest and his nose grazed her own, she took in a deep breath; "I—" Lucy cut herself off when she saw the panic in his eyes, his hand freeze on her hips and the color start to drain from his face. "—Can go for another round," she told him instead.

Remus smiled uneasily at her and pressed a kiss against her lips, he rolled over on top of her.

Lucy was in love with Remus Lupin, who didn't love her back. Not that she could fault him.

* * *

**May 11, 1994**

That second Wednesday of May, Theo Nott and Tahani Al Jamil sat in Lucy's office before their morning classes. Tahani held her book bag in her lap, her ting arms wound around the leather, while Theos rested at his feet.

Lucy, in her flying robes, children across her cluttered desk. "I need to ask the two of you something, now feel free to say no or to tell me to get lost but the other Professors and I talked about both your home situations and we've come to an answer on what to do."

Tahani held her head higher while Theo didn't move a muscle. "What did you come up with?" He wondered.

"That the two of you can stay with me," Lucy said students lo9ked at Lucy with big eyes; Tahanis jaw fell open and Lucy grimaced. "It's just I care about you both and you'd both be safe with me but if you think it's too weird—"

"No!" Tahani said jerking forward in her seat, "No, it's—I like the idea." Thank looked at her hands and fiddled with her thumbs.

"You would take me—us in?" Theo asked skeptically.

"Of course," Lucy replied.

"Why?" He wondered.

"Because you both deserve a safe home that neglect or abuse you and I can offer you both that."

"So it's not because you pity us?" Theo wondered and Lucy smiled at the young boy,

"My mother constantly tried to kill me, Theo I don't pity you or Tahani, I emphasize with you."

"Alright," Theo said on the subject and though he didn't physically smile Lucy could see his dark eyes sparkling.

"But what about our parents? Mine won't notice I'm gone but I'm sure yours will," Thank said looking at Theo. Both kids looked at Lucy who leaned back in her seat.

"Don't worry about them, I'll be going to be taking care of them on Saturday."

"My father's not a man to be bullied," Theo said and Lucy smirked because that's exactly the kind of man Sir Nott was; a coward who tormented, belittled and abused those weaker than him.

"Trust me Theo, Everything will be okay," _Because I'll make it okay._

* * *

**May 14, 1994**

Regardless of the fact that the Nott family Estate was in no way comparable to the Black or Malfoy Manors it wasn't a small house— though it in no way could be counted as a mansion—that sat in the middle of fifteen acres of grassy lands. Lucy could see, as she flew up to the Nott Estate the Aethonan farm that the Notts owns; while the Scamander family was known for breeding and farming Hippogriffs the Notts were known for— and made their Fortune off of —breeding, selling and racing Aethonans, the only breed of winged horse that were native to the United Knigdoms.

Gracefully Lucy landed on the ground just outside the iron gate that lead up to the front door. Magically the iron gate opened and with her broom in her hand and a heavy sack of galleons tied to her waist Lucy walked up to the grand front door.

An elf was there waiting for her when she climbed the last marble step. Like Kreature and every other elf Lucy had met this one's ears shot out from the side of its head, it's eyes were watery and the tea cozy it wore was dirty and stained, but it smiled brightly at Lucy.

"Lady Black," The elf squeaked, "Master Nott is in the sitting room. Would you like Cookie to take your broom Lady Black?"

"No thank you Cookie, if you could just show me where Sir Nott is that would be most helpful," Lucy told the elf.

"Cookie lives to be most helpful Lady Black!" The elf hopped. The elf lead Lucy into the Nott Estate and the first thing she noticed that on the front wall of the foyer was a large portrait of Sir Nott— just Sir Nott —looking darkly down upon those who came into Estate.

_This is the first thing Theo sees when he comes home,_ Lucy thought grimly as the elf Cookie lead her away from the foyer and to the sitting room. The blinds were open and drinking whiskey from a beautiful glass tumbler on the couch was Sir Nott. Above the fireplace was a portrait—like the one the Headmaster had of Phineas Nigellus —of Cantankerous Nott, the previous Sir Nott, drinking and chatting with another painting of a Nott Lucy couldn't quite place.

Motzart played lowly in the background off the gramophone. "Master Nott Cookie has brought Lady Black as yous escoect Master!" The elf squeaked.

Nott did not verbally acknowledge the elf, though it did dispense with a pop as he stood.

"Lady Black," The man smiled wryly at Lucy, "Two calls from the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black in under a year." Lucy blinked at him, Nott eyed the money pouch on her waist and grinned widely at her, teeth, gums and all and Lucy felt her stomach twist at the sight, "Sit, please. Can you offer you anything to drink?"

"No, I don't plan on being here long enough," Lucy said taking the seat across from Sir Nott. She placed her broom of the sea green cushions behind her.

"Then what do you plan on being her for?" Lucy took the money from her waist and placed it on the coffee table between them.

"I want guardianship of your son. In there is one million galleons." Lucy pulled out a roll of parchment from her robes and set that on the table as well.

Nott looked at her in disbelief.

"He's my heir!" The pairing of Cantankerous Nott cried from his place above the fireplace. Lucy shrugged uncaringly.

"It wouldn't be a blood adoption, he would still be the Nott heir," Lucy told both Notts.

"He's my son—" Sir Nott said over his father's protests.

"Who you've used diffendo against so please do my a favor and drop the caring father act will you Sir Nott." Red crept up the man's neck and across his face.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Sir Nott growled out through clenched teeth and Lucy could see the vengeful fire light in his eyes. Theo, if she didn't get him out, would surely and dearly pay for opening his mouth.

"I'm sure you don't, Sir Nott but then again I'm also sure you know nothing about suffocating your wife Monica." Sir Nott froze for a second before jumping to his feet, looking over Lucy who only turned her head a fraction of the way up to meet the mans furious gaze.

Unlike what she thought it may have, it did not in fact remind Lucy of the look her mother used to get in her eyes before flying into a rage and nearly killing her. No her mother's rage had burned bright and hot, dying out as quickly as it had started, the fire in Sir Nott burned low and constant, he was dangerous.

"Get out!"

"Sign me over Theo." Lucy got to her feet.

"Or what?" Sir Nott sneered, "I have the high ground Black, I'm keeping the boy!" Something bristled within Lucy— under the rage she felt by standing in Sir Notts very presence —at the lack of the title she so hated.

"Then I'll go to Dumbledore," Lucy said skillfully lying, "I'll take Theo with me and when his memories of you murdering your wife are shown to the court you'll be thrown into Azkaban for life and then I'll go through with a blood adoption and your son will be Theodore Black, your money will be added to the Black vault and your line will die with you." Sir Nott sucked in a sharp breath as he looked at the money and the parchment on the table.

"You're truly Pollux's grandchild, aren't you?" Cantankerous Nott grumbled from the portrait. Pollux Black, who had died shortly after her mother had announced being pregnant with her had been her mother's father and a dear friend to Cantankerous Nott. Pollux had nearly given Sir Nott her mother's hand before his brother's son, her father, had been given it.

"Yes," Lucy said shortly to the painting, "I am."

"Give her the boy Edgar," Cantankerous said and Sir Notts head shot up in protest.

"Father!"

"Notts survive that is our motto, how are we to survive if we die out? Give her the boy." Sir Nott glared at Lucy but listened to his father's advice and snatched up the patch meant on the table.

"He'll do nothing but disappoint you," Nott said as he summoned an inked quill.

"I doubt that," Lucy said steely. Nott signed in named and initialed in the proper places before throwing the guardianship papers at her.

"Do, do me a favor Lady Black," Sir Nott spit, "And don't darken my stoop with your presence again." Lucy placed the papers in her robes and grabbed her broom, never turning her back on the man.

"Don't worry Edgar," She sneered And Sir Notts shoulders stiffened, "I won't."

* * *

**May 15, 1994**

If Lucy was going to home two teenagers during the summer and over holidays she wouldn't be able to stay in her flat anymore, no matter how much she loved it, so the Goblins at Gringotts Bank, at the behest of Lucy when she had been at her vault the day before, had sent her a files and pictures of all thirty two properties that the Black family— Lucy alone —held. And Remus, at her early morning request sat in bed with her going over each property.

Five properties weren't in the United Kingdom; there were villas in Spain, France and Italy, a castle in Germany and a home in Korea. A little over half of the remaining twenty seven properties were either storefronts or warehouses which left twelve—as Lucy had set the file of her childhood home on fire —of the remaining properties left.

She had quickly discarded the Black Manor file and the Castel Black files as well; Castel Black having been taken from a muggle king in what was now northern England in the early eleventh century.

"What about this one?" Remus suggested, he showed Lucy— who was reading about the manor that was named after her great-great grand aunt Elladora —a file that read Shell Cottage.

"My uncle Alphard lived there," Lucy said and Remus frowned, without a doubt having heard about her uncle from him.

"I thought he gave everything to Sirius?" A muscle in Lucy's cheek clenched at the sound of his name.

"Most of everything, he him his London flat and all his gold but left his home to Regulus. Reggie said he'd been left it as an early wedding present."

"Is it nice?" Remus wondered and Lucy nodded.

"I can't remember Alphard much, he died when I was six, but from what I do remember that man didn't settle for anything less than amazing." Whether it'd been clothes or food or the men her mother always begrudgingly introduced as his friend, Alphard Black always had the best.

"Why not live there?" Lucy shook her head and placed both Shell cottage and Elladora Estate in the discard pile.

"I can't live somewhere my brother was supposed to, it'd be like I was—I don't know, taking it from him." Remus didn't argue with Lucy and instead pecked her cheek before he picked up two more folders from the dwindling pile and handed one to Lucy.

_Constellation Commorancy_ Lucy read as she opened up the file. She looked at the first picture and frowned as she'd never seen the house before in her life. It was beautiful; the home was overlooking a lake and was surrounded by trees, it was large— the file stated it was three floors and had several bedrooms and half a dozen bathrooms —and was miles away from any muggle.

"What's with that look?" Remus mused.

"I—I've either been too or at least heard of almost every file we've come across except for this one."

"Your family owns a lot of property, its natural for you not to know all of them."

"But it's not," Lucy told him, "When I was a small child, before everything—" Before Regulus died and my mother lost it "—I was expected to know every name on my family tree, every Constellation and every property and artifact my family owned. Anything less warranted a lashing." Remus' face twisted painfully and sypathicslly he reached out and took Lucy's hand in his.

Lucy, with a half smile, looked at Remus before flipping through the history of the lake house before freezing. Sirius— the first, not him or her great-great uncle but the first Sirius in the long lines of Blacks —had commissioned the house to be built. I have heard of this property.

Lucy knew enough about Sirius the first to know why; it was the same reason he had never married or had children. Sirius the first had loved a woman he'd met at Hogwarts, they had both been Slytherins and they had both been purebloods. He'd been the youngest of his generation of Blacks, his older brother Phineas Nigellus had taken on the position of Potions Professor in his last year. He had also been the most foolhardy, or at least that's what Lucy's mother used to claim.

Sirius the first and the woman he loved planned their whole lives together, from the wedding they'd have right after graduation, to the job at the ministry his father would get him and the house— the beautiful lake house named Constellation Commorancy —they'd live in to the dozens of children they'd have and name.

And then she died; she'd been attacked by muggles over their Christmas break in London, she and friends had snuck out of the Leaky Cauldron to rebelliously wander around muggle London only to be brutally murdered.

Sirius the first had gotten his revenge, the courts hadn't thought to seek justice on the grieving you man and he had sworn never to marry because he still loved the woman he had buried and to prove so he had commissioned the house they had planned to live in with enough room for all the children they had planned to have.

It was a heartbreaking story Lucy had thought romantic. At the time Regulus had declared that's what he would do if Claudia were to untimely pass, and argumentatively he used to say it was stupid, to put your life on hold like that after somone you loved died was ridiculous; he claimed you had to live for those you loved, despite that fact that they may not be.

"This one," Lucy said to Remus, showing him the file, "I need you help me fix this one up."

* * *

**May 20, 1994**

Lucy could feel the excitement as she stood on the pitch awaking both the Gryffindor and Slytherin Quidditch teams. The crowd of students buzzed excitedly in the stands awaiting the final match of the season. Three quarters of the crowd were wearing scarlet rosettes, waving scarlet flags with the Gryffindor lion upon them, or brandishing banners with slogans like "GO GRYFFINDOR!" and "LIONS FOR THE CUP." Behind the Slytherin goal posts, however, two hundred people were wearing green; the silver serpent of Slytherin glittered on their flags, and Snape sitting in the very front row, wearing green like everyone else, wore a very grim smile.

"And here are the Gryffindors!" yelled Lee Jordan, as the Gryffindor team walked into the pitch, "Potter, Bell, Johnson, Spinnet, Weasley, Weasley, and Wood. Widely acknowledged as the best team Hogwarts has seen in a good few years —" Lee's comments were drowned by a tide of 'boos' from the Slytherin end.

"And here come the Slytherin team, led by Captain Flint. He's made some changes in the lineup and seems to be going for size rather than skill —" More boos from the Slytherin crowd. Lucy, frowned up at the commenters box because while Remus had said the same thing that morning at breakfast after seeing the nearly comply seventh year team lineup, Lucy, who had watched the practices disagreed.

The players Flint had chosen were big, yes, but they were also good.

When both teams met in the middle Lucy stepped up between them. "Captains, shake hands!"

Flint and Wood approached each other and grasped each other's hand very tightly; it looked as though each was trying to break the other's fingers.

"Mount your brooms!" said Lucy, and once each player had she sounded off, "Three... two... one..." The sound of her whistle was lost in the roar from the crowd as fourteen brooms rose into the air. Draco Malfoy tailed Harry Potter as the dark haired boy searched for the snitch.

"And it's Gryffindor in possession, Alicia Spinner of Gryffindor with the Quaffle, heading straight for the Slytherin goal posts, looking good, Alicia! Argh, no — Quaffle intercepted by Warrington, Warrington of Slytherin tearing UP the field — WHAM! — nice Bludger work there by George Weasley, Warrington drops the Quaffle, it's caught by — Johnson, Gryffindor back in possession, come on, Angelina — nice swerve around Montague — duck, Angelina, that's a Bludger! – SHE SCORES! TEN-ZERO TO GRYFFINDOR!"

Angelina Johnson punched the air as she soared around the end of the field; the sea of scarlet below was screaming its delight

"OUCH!"

Angelina was nearly thrown from her broom as Marcus Flint went smashing into her.

"Sorry!" said Flint as the crowd below booed. "Sorry, didn't see her!"

A moment later, Fred Weasley chucked his Beater's club at the back of Flint's head. Flint's nose smashed into the handle of his broom and began to bleed.

"That's enough!" shrieked Lucy as she zoomed between then. "Penalty shot to Gryffindor for an unprovoked attack on their Chaser! Penalty shot to Slytherin for deliberate damage to their Chaser!"

"Come off it Lucy!" howled Fred, but Lucy blew her whistle and Alicia flew forward to take the penalty.

"Come on, Alicia!" yelled Lee into the silence that had descended on the crowd. "YES! SHE'S BEATEN THE KEEPER! TWENTY-ZERO TO GRYFFINDOR!"

Lucy watched as Flint, still bleeding freely, fly forward to take the Slytherin penalty. Wood was hovering in front of the Gryffindor goal posts, his jaw clenched.

"'Course, Wood's a superb Keeper!" Lee Jordan told the crowd as Flint waited for Madam Hooch's whistle. "Superb! Very difficult to pass — very difficult indeed — YES! I DON'T BELIEVE IT! HE'S SAVED IT!"

"Gryffindor in possession, no, Slytherin in possession — no! Gryffindor back in possession and it's Katie Bell, Katie Bell for Gryffindor with the Quaffle, she's streaking up the field — THAT WAS DELIBERATE!"

Montague, a Slytherin Chaser, had swerved in front of Katie, and instead of seizing the Quaffle had grabbed her head. Katie cart-wheeled in the air but managed to stay on her broom, but dropped the Quaffle. Lucy's whistle rang out again as she soared over to Montague and began shouting at him. A minute later, Katie had put another penalty past the Slytherin Seeker, Lucy turned to Flint who hovered in the air near her.

"Control your players Mr. Flint!"

"Sure thing Madam Black!" Flint replied though he didn't sound sincere.

"THIRTY-ZERO! TAKE THAT, YOU DIRTY, CHEATING —"

"Jordan, if you can't commentate in an unbiased way —"

"I'm telling it like it is, Professor!" Harry Potter took off towards the Slytherin end of the pitch; though as Lucy looked towards where the younger boy had shot off to and did not see the Snitch herself, when one of the Bludgers came streaking past Harry's right ear, hit by the gigantic Slytherin Beater, Derrick only for the second Bludger grazed Harry's elbow. The other Beater, Bole, was closing in.

Bole and Derrick zooming toward Harry, clubs raised only to collided with a sickening crunch as Harry turned up at the last moment.

"Ha haaa!" yelled Lee Jordan as the Slytherin Beaters lurched away from each other, clutching their heads. "Too bad, boys! You'll need to get up earlier than that to beat a Firebolt! And it's Gryffindor in possession again, as Johnson takes the Quaffle — Flint alongside her — poke him in the eye, Angelina! — it was a joke, Professor, it was a joke — oh no — Flint in possession, Flint flying toward the Gryffindor goal posts, come on now, Wood, save —!"

But Flint had scored; there was an eruption of cheers from the Slytherin end, and Lee swore so badly that Professor McGonagall tried to tug the magical megaphone away from him. "Sorry, Professor, sorry! Won't happen again! So, Gryffindor in the lead, thirty points to ten, and Gryffindor in possession —"

It was turning into one of the dirtiest games Lucy had ever seen played on the Hogwarts pitch. Enraged that Gryffindor had taken such an early lead, the Slytherins were rapidly resorting to any means to take the Quaffle. Bole hit Alicia with his club and tried to say he'd thought she was a Bludger. George Weasley elbowed Bole in the face in retaliation. Lucy, after yelling at both captains once more, awarded both teams penalties, and Wood pulled off another spectacular save, making the score forty-ten to Gryffindor.

Malfoy was still keeping close to Harry as he soared over the match, looking around for the Snitch once Gryffindor was fifty points ahead. Katie Bell, a Chaser scored. Fifty-ten. Fred and George swooped around her, clubs raised, in case any of the Slytherins were thinking of revenge. Bole and Derrick took advantage of Fred's and George's absence to aim both Bludgers at Wood; they caught him in the stomach, one after the other, and he rolled over in the air, clutching his broom, completely winded.

Lucy besides herself, turned to both boys, "YOU DO NOT ATTACK THE KEEPER UNLESS THE QUAFFLE IS WITHIN THE SCORING AREA!" she shrieked at Bole and Derrick. "Gryffindor penalty!" And Angelina scored. Sixty-ten. Moments later, Fred Weasley pelted a Bludger at Warrington, knocking the Quaffle out of his hands; Alicia seized it and put it through the Slytherin goal — seventy-ten. The Gryffindor crowd below was screaming itself hoarse — Gryffindor was sixty points in the lead,

Harry, soaring up in the air, lurched forward. Lucy looked on at the Seekers horrified, Draco Malfoy had thrown himself forward, grabbed hold of the Firebolt's tail, and was pulling it back.

Blagging, as it was called was an illegal move diffuse to pull of. "Penalty! Penalty to Gryffindor! I've never seen such tactics." Lucy yelled truthfully. In all her years as a Seeker— while at school and Professionally —she had never seen a player blag because it was incredibly dangerous to both parties

"YOU CHEATING SCUM!" Lee Jordan was howling into the megaphone, dancing out of Professor McGonagall's reach. "YOU FILTHY, CHEATING B —" Professor McGonagall didn't even bother to tell him off. She was actually shaking her finger in Malfoy's direction, her hat had fallen off, and she too was shouting furiously. Alicia took Gryffindor's penalty, but she was so angry she missed by several feet. The Gryffindor team was losing concentration and the Slytherins, delighted by Malfoy's foul on Harry, were being spurred on to greater heights.

"Slytherin in possession, Slytherin heading for goal — Montague scores —" Lee groaned. "Seventy-twenty to Gryffindor..."

"Angelina Johnson gets the Quaffle for Gryffindor, come on, Angelina, COME ON!"

Every single Slytherin player apart from Malfoy was streaking up the pitch toward Angelina, including the Slytherin Keeper — they were all going to block her — Harry wheeled the Firebolt around, bent so low he was lying flat along the handle, and kicked it forward. Like a bullet, he shot toward the Slytherins.

They scattered as the Firebolt zoomed toward them; Angelina's way was clear. The young boys play as it wasn't illegal and truthfully the looks on Boyle and Derriks face nearly caused the pureblood witch to topple off her broom in a fit giggles.

"SHE SCORES! SHE SCORES! Gryffindor leads by eighty Points to twenty!" Harry, who had almost pelted headlong into the stands, skidded to a halt in midair, reversed, and zoomed back into the middle of the field.

And then Malfoy dove, a look of triumph on his face, there, a few feet above the grass below, was a tiny, golden glimmer. Harry urged the Firebolt downward, but Malfoy was miles ahead, he was gaining on Malfoy — Harry flattened himself to the broom handle as Bole sent a Bludger at him — he was at Malfoy's ankles — he was level — Lucy looked on in anticipation.

Harry threw himself forward, took both hands off his broom. He knocked Malfoy's arm out of the way and then loudly explained "YES!"

Harry Potter pulled out of his dive, his hand in the air, and the stadium exploded. Harry soared above the crowd, an odd ringing in his ears. The tiny golden ball was held tight in his fist, beating its wings hopelessly against his fingers.

Then Wood, speeding toward the younger boy, half-blinded by tears; seized Harry around the neck and sobbed unrestrainedly into his shoulder. Harry felt two large thumps as Fred and George hit them; then Angelina's, Alicia's, and Katie's voices, "We've won the Cup! We've won the Cup!" Tangled together in a many-armed hug, the Gryffindor team sank, yelling hoarsely, back to earth as Lucy flew to the teachers box to retrieve the Quidditch cup.

She didn't bother to look at the Headmaster, though she shared a brilliant grin with Remus Lupin. As Lucy turned to the pitch where a sea of red and goal swarmed the team she caught sight of the Slytherin team trudging back to the locker rooms, Marcus Flint lingered at the door of the locker room and smiled fondly back at Wood before dispersing from sight.

Wave upon wave of crimson supporters was pouring over the barriers onto the field. Hands were raining down on their backs. The rest of the Gryffindor team were hoisted onto the shoulders of the crowd.

"Yeh beat 'em, Harry, yeh beat 'em! Wait till I tell Buckbeak!" Hagrid told Harry thunderously.

There was Percy, jumping up and down like a maniac, all dignity forgotten and Professor McGonagall was sobbing harder even than Wood, wiping her eyes with an enormous Gryffindor flag.

Lucy, as she handed the cup to Wood, who kissed it and hugged it tightly to his chest before passing it to a jumping Harry Potter, was pulled into a tight hug by the Quidditch Captian.

"I won Ms!" He exclaimed, tears running down his face.

"I know Mr. Wood, you deserve it! Though you might want to wipe your eyes, there's someone I want you to meet!" Lucy said over the loud crowd. Oliver Wood, confused, listened as Lucy lead him into the stands where an older man with a large handlebar mustache sat.

"Oliver Wood I want you to meet Robert Oberstine, he's the Puddlemere United scout." Robert stood and Oliver looked at the man speechless.

"It's nice to meet you son, I hear you want to play for the team…"

* * *

**May 22, 1994**

From the moment Lucy had walked into Remus Lupin's office the Defense Professors lips had been pressed against her own, his hands wandered under her shirt as her own were planted on each side of his face, his teeth pulled at her bottom lip and her faintest tracked higher and higher until they were knitted in his hair, pulling at his roots.

Every time Lucy tugged at his hair Remus Lupin kissed her harder.

Lucy was shoved up against the closed office door as Remus pressed his knee between her legs, Lucy rolled her hips against his thigh and a moan vibrated loudly from the back of her throat as she did so. Remus pulled at her bra, ripping the white lace accidentally, not even flinching at the sound of torn fabric, his thumb and forefinger caught Lucy's nipple and pinched it almost painfully.

Lucy arched her back and Remus' teeth, as his lips trailed along her skin, scraped along the side of her neck as he continued to fondle her breast; Lucy's breathing was ragged as Remus pressed against her harder, before he lead her— he walked backwards as he lead Lucy —to his desk. He kissed her once more, harder then the last time.

Roughly, as the backs of his tights hit the edge of his desk, Remus detached his lips from Lucy's and spun them so that he were behind her; her arms braced her as he rutted against her; she could feel his swollen cock through his pants, pressed up against the curve of her ass.

She wanted him, something inside her craved him like this, rough and unforgiving. A part of her, one she'd never cared to admit she ever listened too, a voice that didn't sound like her mother but like the usual voice that talked her into bad decisions wanted Remus Lupin to leave his mark on her just as the rest of the world had.

Remus kissed the crook of Lucy's neck, bitting it but not— never —breaking the skin, and she nearly screamed; though she did let out a stream of pleasurable whimpers as Remus' hands slipped back under her shirt only to slide out once more.

"No—" she whimpered, her eyes closed as she molded herself against him, she could feel all of him against her, "—Please." Her lip quivered

"Pants down now," Remus said hotly against her ear; Lucy could feel him working his own belt buckle and towing it hazardous to the ground before retching his pants and boxers down. Lucy did the same, her robe pants pooled around her calves as Remus once more bent her over, Lucy braced herself against her forearms. His fingers clutched the skin of her waist, his fingers bit into her skin and slammed himself inside of her.

Lucy wasn't quite sure if she moaned or yelled, only that she saw white.

Roughly Remus worked himself against Lucy's hips, grunting as he did so. Lucy rested her forehead against her balled up fists, her bottom lip caught in between her teeth. One of Remus' hands tracked locker, past her navel and, as he contained to slam in and out of her, fumble until he found her clit.

One of Lucy's hands moved from the wooden desk, to under the collar of her shirt as she started to play with her breast the way Remus had. She envisioned her hands to be his own.

Lucy jolted forward as Remus touched the bundle of nervous, her breath caught in her throat as the werewolf pressed against it harshly rubbing it.

A hot iron coil tightened in the pit of Lucy's belly as the toes in her shoes started to curl and her nails scratched against the wood of Remus' desk.

"Oh Merlin!" She panted, fire flooded her veins as her pleasure reached high, and higher and—Lucy pushed back against Remus as she tumbled over the edge of ecstasy, Remus following shortly after.

They stayed like that, Remus half slumped over a heavily breathing Lucy who laid against the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professors desk. Slowly Lucy moved so that though her pants were around her ankles she was sitting on Remus' desk. She could feel their fluids sliding out of her and onto the desk.

Remus leaned on one hand and pressed his forehead to Lucy's.

"I'm sorry," Remus muttered, "I didn't ask permission, I was rough—" Lucy pecked his lips reassuringly.

"There's an eclipse in a few days," he told her.

"I know." Softly he pecked her lips,

"Again, sorry."

"Make it up to me in the shower?" Lucy grinned mischievously, Remus grinned roguishly at her. He toed off his shoes and pants and tried to pick Lucy up romantically as couples did in books and movies only to drop her back onto the desk. Lucy giggled into his shoulder, she slid off the desk and kissed his chin.

"Just lead the way you dork."

"Whatever you say love."

* * *

**May 26, 1994**

Despite the wolfsbane potion he'd been taking Remus Lupin had broken his leg, shattered his right elbow, hand and collarbone and nearly torn out his own throat due to the eclipse that had happened the night before. Lucy nearly asleep sat in the uncomfortable Hospital wing chair next to his bedside, his good hand in her own.

No matter how many times Madam Pomfrey had tried to urge her back to bed Lucy couldn't leave him to wake up alone in the Hospital Wing alone. Next to the picked out plate of food Sprout had brought her sat a pile of papers Lucy had graded on Remus' behalf sat piled on the wheely table behind her and the flowers and add-libs Penny and Tonks had sent him as get well gifts after hearing about an upcoming eclipse.

Remus shifted with a painful groan and Lucy jerked forward, awake.

"Hey, hey, hey," Lucy cooed soothingly, her thumb rubbing reassuring circles on his arm.

"What—" He rasped, "—happened."

"Don't speak okay, you hurt yourself really bad last night," Lucy said, "Madam Pomfrey says it'll be a few days before you move, let alone speak."

"—Classes—"

"—Stop speaking!" Lucy scolded. "I spoke to McGonagall already, we'll both be substituting for you so don't worry alright? Just rest."

"Why are you here?" Lucy frowned hurt.

"I care about you, you moron" She said woundedly. "And what part of you nearly tore your own throat are isn't getting in your head?" The corners of Remus' lip twitched.

"You need sleep," he said.

"And you need to zip it before Pomfrey comes out and beats you to death," Lucy said fondly. Remus tried to smile at that only to grimace due to the pain. He settled more deeply into the Hospital cot and looked at Lucy, their fingers entertained like the vines of ivy that lined sections of the Castle walls and looked at her.

"Care about you too," he said softly before he shut his eyes once more, falling into a deep sleep, leaving Lucy to grin stupidly in her seat as she gazed down at him.

_I love you._

* * *

**a/n: FIRST OFF, HEY PEOPLE HAPPY PRIDE MONTH! Second, only one more chapter until POA is over (but i am writing for while series so technically its 48 more chapters to go) so make sure to leave me comments, to favorite and follow and I hope you guys enjoyed!**


	12. June 1994 - chapter twelve

**June 1, 1994**

Despite the fact that he wasn't fully healed and Madam Pomfrey had ordered Remus Lupin to stay in bed— or in the chair at his desk, or on the couch in his room, or anywhere that didn't require him to be standing —or else face her wrath as the Hogwarts matron, the Professor in question had refused to let Lucy see Claudia Burke alone.

With one hand on the cane Hagrid had carved for him and another around Lucy's shoulders the pair hobbled down to Hogshead tavern. Lucy's arm was wrapped securely around Remus' waist in jase he fell. The sun, hidden behind a thick blanket of clouds shined mutely as Lucy nervously tapped her fingers against Remus' belt.

"What if she hates me?" Lucy asked Remus.

"She said she didn't," Remus rasped, his voice was somewhat better than it had been the morning after the eclipse. Though he still could only talk so much throughout the day before not being able too, and couldn't have hard foods like crackers or toast or drink alcohol which ironically, was all that the dirty wizarding tavern served.

"What if that was a ruse, what if, what if she's here to curse me?" She wondered, Lucy couldn't see Claudia Burke— the blonde girl who her brother loved more than anything —cursing her, but she also couldn't imagine Claudia Burke without Regulus. Claudia and Regulus, Reggie and Claudia, that's how it had always been and now to see Claudia Burke without Regulus—grief shot through Lucy's body. "This was a bad idea, maybe we should just go back to the school."

Lucy went to turn only for Remus to lock his arm around her shoulders. "You're going," he told her, he cracked a small reassuring smile, "She's not going to curse and if she does I'll duel her." Lucy looked at Remus unsurly, he had sounded serious about dueling Claudia should he have too. Protecting her, even as hurt as he was. It warmed her heart.

"You Gryffindors and your bravery," Lucy snorted as she leaned into Remus and inhaled his sent. He smelled of old parchment, ink and her peaches body wash. Remus pressed a kiss to the crown on Lucy's head and her very soul seemed to curl; she loved him. When she pulled away she lightly tugged Remus in the direction of the rundown bar, "Come on."

Hogshead tavern was just as dirty and run down as it had been when she and Remus had met with Penny and Dora. Cobwebs still hung from the wooden rafters and the windows were closed as they had been in the winter, causing the deslit bar to feel stuffier than ever, and Aberforth, the bartender lazy cleaned a mug from behind the bar as a tiny bald man dressed in patched robes animatedly spoke to him complaining of some man—

"The bastard!" The tiny man slapped his hand flat against the bars countertop. Aberforth looked tiredly at the man.

And in the back corner shrouded mostly in shadow sat a witch. Lucy stopped misstep as their eyes met. Claudia Burke, as she moved out of the shadows and into the light of the bar looked exactly as she had at eighteen, and extremely different. Her hair was still as golden blonde as it'd always been, though while Lucy could remember Claudia always keeping it long she saw that the older witch now sported a short bob that remembered the haircut of American Flappers in the twenties. Her clothing was as nice and expensive looking as always, though as a young woman Lucy could remember Claudia had always worn bright and warm colors— she'd always stuck out in the darkness of Grimmauld Place —now her robes were black. But the glaring difference between the Claudia Lucy could remember and the Claudia that stood before her, approaching her, was the long scar that traveled from her lip up to her ear.

Lucy could easily remember her mother giving Claudia the scar, it had been her fault.

_Regulus Black did not have a funeral, there was no grand wake at the Black manor and no body to bury like all the Blacks before him. Walburga Black, who had been catontic for the week that followed her nieces and nephew-in-laws visit, did however host a small dinner party in her sons honor._

_Lucy's aunt and uncle and her cousin Narcissa- Bellatrix and her husband Rodolphus had been left off the invitation list- had all been invited. Rabastan, though Rodolphus' brother, had been invited as well but Araminta was sick, the new baby— Ophelia —was fine but Araminta the day before had been transported to St. Mungos leaving Rabastan to be glued to her side._

_Other people, young men and women whom Regulus had known from school and childhood garden parties, and their parents who Walburga had known had been invited too. Claudia Burke, puffy eyed and tear stained had been invited as well, Walburga had clung to the young woman's hand since she had arrived._

_Barty Crouch Jr, Regulus' best friend, someone who never failed to make Lucy laugh when he visited, who constantly snuck her sweets and such simply because it had annoyed Regulus, found her in Regulus' room, sitting on his neatly made bed with his journal open, frozen on the page constantly rereading the same entry._

_The last entry._

**I do this for her, my soulmate and best friend,**_ Regulus had written, I_** do this so our children— any children we way have —can have a better life, one that will look nothing like mine or my siblings or my cousins, one where they can be happy and free of the silver spoon shoved down their throat. People assume it's better being born a Black, we want for nothing but the lead in the silver spoon poisons us until our blood and our hearts are as black as our names. I know the risk, I know I may die but isn't that a risk worth taking so Claudia and I, and the rest of the world may find peace? I sound like a Gryffindor,  he had mused ****but what are houses once we've graduated? Just dividing lines in an unjust system. I've seen both sides of the story and I reject the side I've blindly been lead to believe was right. Sirius was wrong about a many of things but this, his stance on blood purity on how mudbloods** _the word was crossed out twice _**are the same as us, on how we are no better then any other creature, was correct. **

**"**_Lucy?" Barty asked, "What are you doing up here everyone's down—you're crying." Barty Crouch Jr frowned and Lucy tightened her grip on the leather bound journal._

_"It's her fault!" Lucy said angrily as glared down at the page and then at Barty Crouch Jr._

_"What? What's who's fault?"_

_"Claudia!" Lucy spat, she held up the journal as she jumped off the bed, "It's her fault, Reggie's dead because of her!" Barty Crouch Jr shook his head in denial, Claudia Burke was as much his friend as she had been Regulus'._

_"Reg's death had nothing to do with Claudia Lucy," Barty Crouch Jr said Lucy knew like Regulus Barty Crouch Jr bared the mark too and though she didn't quite understand what that meant at the time she knew Barty was privy to the same information Bellatrix and Lucius had been, that he too had been told her brother had died fleeing._

_"He did it for her!" Lucy argued, she turned the journal around and read the first sentence out loud, "I do this for her, my soulmate and best friend—it's her fault Barty!" Barty Crouch Jr, with his eyebrows together, shuffled into the room and took the journal from Lucy, his face twisted as he read the passage._

_"That traitor!" Barty hissed glaring down at the page. Lucy's head snapped up and she glared at Barty Crouch Jr._

_"My brothers no traitor!" Before the Crouch boy could respond two people, Walburga Black and Claudia Burke, appeared in the doorway._

_"Lucretia Walburga Black," her mother hissed, and perhaps if Lucy hadn't been to enraged at the sight of the blonde witch she would have trembled before her mother's burning gaze, it was unlike any look she had ever received from her mother before. "What are you doing in here!"_

_Lucy snatched the journal from Barty— her mother squawked at her to hand the journal back and apologize to Sir Crouch —and glared at Claudia, pointing at her, "It's her fault Reggie's dead! It's your fault my brother is dead!"_

_Walburga Black stopped mid step towards her daughter, her hand still around Claudias._

_"What?" Lucy read the first sentence again before her mother, leaving a horrified Claudia standing in the doorway, stole the book from her, her eyes frantic and then in the cold, calculating fashion of Walburga Black she looked at Claudia Burke in a way she would only ever look at Lucy._

_With all the speed of a former Hogwarts dueling champion Walburga Black drew her wand and cast the same spell she'd use on Lucy in a few weeks time at Claudia Burke. "Diffindo!"_

_Claudia Burke stumbled back, Lucy looked on horrified as Claudia loudly cried and blood gushing from the right side of her face— There's so much blood, Lucy had thought —Barty Crouch Jr jumped towards Claudia and Lucy looked up at her seething mother._

_"My son is dead because of you!" Her mother crowed, she waved her wand and basted a hole in the wall where Barty and Claudia's heads had been—the pair had ducked just in time —Lucy ran to the far corner of the room, behind Regulus' desk, "Get out and if I ever see you again I'll kill you!" Her mother screamed. Neither Claudia or Barty Crouch Jr replied, instead the pair of them raced out of number twelve Grimmauld Place leaving nothing but a thin trail of blood in the wake out the door._

_"And you!" Her mother turned on Lucy, she grabbed the young girl by her hair, Lucy cried as she walked with her mother who through her into the hall, "What did I say about coming in here!"_

"Lucy," Claudia Burke smiled warmly, "You've grown up." Lucy felt her heart beat in her throat.

"Occupational hazard of being nine the last time you saw me," she replied weakly as she looked anywhere but Claudia Burke's face. Perhaps if she didn't look at her— at the scar—she wouldn't feel sick to her stomach. Lucy felt Remus' arm slide off her shoulders and she grabbed his hand, he squeezed hers reassuringly. "This is Remus Lupin, he— uh —he came with me."

Claudia turned to Remus her eyes narrowed and calculating, "You were one of Sirius' friends weren't you?" Remus stiffened but nodded.

"Yes, I was," he answered and Claudia Burke perused her lips together, she looked as if she had a novels worth to say on the subject but instead she turned to Lucy once more and smiled at the younger witch.

"Let's go sit, I'm sure you have a lot to tell me," she said to Lucy, and Remus, as she led them to the table she had emerged from. Remus slid into the both first and the Lucy, Claudia sat across from them.

"I heard you play quidditch professionally," Claudia started. Lucy nodded as she looked at her hands and then the wall next to Claudia's head,

"Yeah for the Tornadoes, or at least I did," Lucy bit back a sigh. "I've been suspended until they find him."

"You're amazing," Claudia said lightly, "Regulus would be jealous of your skills."

"You've seen me play?" Lucy asked and Claudia nodded.

"Whenever I'd visit my sister and the children I'd catch one of your matches."

"And You think Reggie would be proud of my skill?" Claudia looked at Lucy tenderly and reached over the table and grabbed Lucy's hand, the younger witches face seemed to crumble under her insecurity.

"Of course," Claudia laughed warmly. Everything about Claudia Burke was warm. "Though I don't think he'd be impressed with what's the move called, Flinting?"

"Feinting," Lucy corrected with a crooked grin, a memory of a conversation she and Remus had once had flitted through her mind, "Yeah I don't think he would be either, Merlin he was a worrywort."

"It's not like he didn't have cause," Claudia said softly and Lucy's shoulders deflated at the indirect mention of her mother. "He loved you, you know. We talked about taking you away from your mother after our wedding all the time." Lucy's lip curled inwards.

"I'm sorry," Lucy said thickly, "I was angry, a child, and—I'm so, so sorry Claudia. Not a day goes by that I don't regret blaming you or, or telling my mother—"

"—It's okay," Claudia Burke told Lucy, "I don't blame you." Startled, Lucy looked at Claudia.

"W-What?" The ex-Seeker stammered and while Claudia hadn't exactly giggle she laughed airily at Lucy.

"You were nine years old and you had just lost your older brother, the one person who'd protected you against your mother. I don't fault you for blaming someone, even if that someone was me," Claudia explained and Lucy very nearly burst out into tears.

"I would have been ecstatic to have you as my sister. Reggie, he loved you so much," Lucy said emotionally, Claudia teared up and smiled sadly back at her.

"I still love him you know," Claudia used her thumb to wipe the tears, from the corner of her eyes, "As a little girl I'd hated him, he was rude and arrogant— a real Black —And then I fell in love with him and even now, fourteen years later I can't imagine loving anyone else."

"He would have wanted you happy Claudia." Claudia Burke snorted at that,

"We both know Regulus would have wanted twenty years minimum for morning." He wouldn't have. While Rehulus had been as theatrical as every other Black he hadn't been nearly the biggest drama queen of the bunch— Bellatrix always had been the Black families resident drama queen; she loved stirring the pot —he loved Claudia Burke too much to want to her be unhappy for so long. He would have wanted her to get over him as fast as possible and live her life.

Lucy had been nine when her brother had died but she hadn't been stupid or blind, Regulus had called Claudia Burke his soulmate in his last journal entry and he was right to do so. With the exceptions of Araminta and Rabastan, and Andromeda and Ted, and of course Mr and Mrs. Weasley Lucy had never seen two people as deeply in love as she had Claudia and Regulus.

"What have you been up too, I heard you moved to Italy."

"Milan," Claudia nodded, "I own a restaurant."

"What's the name?"

"Little Kings." Lucy's heart yearned for the woman in front of her. Lucy nodded. It was quiet for a moment and Remus placed a hand on Lucy's knee under the table. Claudia blinked at them— at Remus —"So tell me about your life. What school was like, what house you were in—Slytherin right?" Lucy nodded, "Friends stuff like that."

"Uh well, my best friend's Bill Weasley, he's like another brother honestly." Claudia's eyebrows raised interested, Lucy's gut churned, waiting for Claudia to say something, purebloods always did.

"Really? That must be nice, the Weasleys have a big family, don't they?" Lucy smiled.

"Yeah, and I'm pretty close to my cousin Dora and her girlfriend." Claudia's brows knitted together.

"Since when do you have a cousin Dora? Did Narcissa give birth to a girl?" Lucy laughed and shook her head,

"Nymphadora, Andromeda's daughter." Claudia's lips formed an O-shape,

"How is Andromeda? I mean she was always quite a bit older than us but I think the last time I saw her was the end of my first year, right before she got disowned."

"Good, good," Lucy said, "She's one of the head medwitches now in St. Mungo's maternity ward." Claudia's face brightened.

"Pass on my congratulations will you?" She asked Lucy who gramanced. Remus shifted guiltily in his seat.

"We're not really talking at the moment," Lucy said plainly.

"Oh?" Lucy shrugged.

"We had a fight on Christmas, Andy overreacted—"

"About you sleeping with a werewolf." If she had been drinking something Lucy would have spewed it all over Claudia Burke. Remus froze in his seat, sheet white.

Remus and Lucy both stumbled over declarations of denial, "I don't know—" and "I'm not—" but not "We're not sleeping together."

"Don't lie to me Lucy," Claudia said evenly. "After he left home Regulus wanted to know everything about Sirius' friends. He used to deny it but he'd been jealous Sirius had run off and left him for a new family," Claudia turned to Remus and smirked, "This little fact happened to come up."

"And he didn't tell anyone?" Remus asked tensely.

"A few people, me and Barty, the Snape boy who used to follow you all around."

"Why did Reggie tell Snape?" Lucy wondered.

"By the time Regulus had found out it was common knowledge that Sirius had left to live with the Potters. They were practically dueling in the corridors every time they saw each other—" next to her Remus nodded, "—So what would your reaction have been if the scorned brother of Sirius Black announced to the Great Hall that his best friend was a werewolf?"

"I'd think he was petty and jealous and just spreading a nasty rumor to get back at him," Lucy said and Claudia nodded she looked at Remus, not apologetically.

"Exactly, Barty thought they should spread it through the house and suddenly it would have been all over the school but the moment it came back to them it'd have no credibility. Snape was the perfect thorn in your little band of Merry men's sides."

"It nearly got him killed," Remus breathed.

Claudia shrugged, "Regulus never really cared for the boy. I always thought he was a creep, I mean do you remember how he used to follow Lily Evans around?"

"I'm sorry Snape had a thing for Harry Potter's mother?" Lucy choked and both Claudia nodded while Remus shrugged, Remus turned to look at Lucy.

"Snape and Lily were friends before Hogwarts, James always thought Snape had a thing for Lily—"

"Oh he did," Claudia said, "He was the laughing stock of the common room for the most part. I mean Avery and Mulciber kept him around because he knew what he was talking about when it came to the Dark Arts but the rest of us? We thought he was pathetic."

Lucy wondered if the Slytherin House thought Severus Snape was pathetic for chasing a girl that didn't want him, or for not even being up to the caliber of a muggleborn. Lucy knew Slytherins— she knew the people who Regulus and Claudia hung around —and knew that it was more than likely the latter rather than the former.

"I think the only people who made his life more of a hell then you and your group was our own house."

"Why? Slytherins were supposed to stick together," Lucy said.

"Who stuck by you after Sirius was arrested?" Claudia wondered.

"Bill Weasley," Lucy said automatically.

"But what Slytherins?" Lucy stayed quiet. The Slytherins who hadn't ostracized her in her years at Hogwarts had been the children and siblings of Death Eaters— Fliex Rosier, Huge Yaxley for example —kids who were too busy keeping their own head down and themselves out of the spotlight to worry about Lucy.

"Exactly."

"So what?" Lucy wondered, "This is the part you tell me Reggie would be disappointed in me and try to ward me off of Remus?" She laced their fingers together on the table. Claudia smiled wryly.

"Somehow I don't think that would work even if I did try. You Blacks were always stubborn hotheads, besides I think Regulus would know that you could take care of yourself and would have focused more so on the fact you were with Sirius' friend. He would have hated that," the blonde witch chuckled.

"And you don't have a problem with him teaching?" Lucy wondered lightly, her voice though held a sharp edge to it.

"I did," Claudia said truthfully, "Astoria wrote to me raving about you two and I'll admit I had reservations about you teaching my nieces."

"What changed?" Claudia grimanced.

"Before everything Barty, at St. Mugos, was ranting and raving about the journal entry, Regulus wanted a better world hadn't he? An equal one?" Lucy nodded. "So I had a friend pull your file at the werewolf registry office, you've never bit or attacked another person. Who am I to dirty Regulus' final wishes by outing you?"

"Thank you," Remus said and Claudia waved him off. Lucy smiled at Claudia, her shoulders relaxed against the seat of the booth as they all contained to talk, a fourteen year old weight that had settled in Lucy's chest lifted as the night ticked on.

* * *

**June 5, 1994**

Lucy Black sat on Remus Lupins couch relined, a book about cleaning and other household spells was in her lap, a book about raising teenagers and a stack of notes Mrs. Weasley had sent her sat piled on the floor next to her. Her bare legs were tangled with Remus' pajama covered ones as he sat on the opposite end of the sofa grading fourth year essays. Every so often he would grimace or shake his head and cross something out in red ink and scribble down a response.

"You know," Lucy said looking at the paper Remus had marked thoroughly in red, "Your hand writing is fucking horrendous." Remus looked up and over at Lucy scandalizes.

"Rude," he said simply with a jab of his quill before turning back to the papers.

"Who's paper is that?" Lucy wondered amusedly.

"Mr. Crabbes," Remus answered and Lucy snorted.

"Seems like junior there takes after his father in more ways then one—the whole family is stupid."

"I don't think you're allowed to say that about students," Remus said smiling.

Lucy scoffed, "And who's going to report me, you?"

"Maybe," Remus said, he set his quill and stack of ungraded papers down on the coffee table, "I was a Prefect when I was at school." Lucy earmarked the page she was on and set the book on top of the stack besides her. She grinned mischievously at Remus.

"Prefect to Professor, someone's a nerd," Lucy teased. Remus' hand ran up her leg as he moved to hover over her,

"To be honest I think Dumbledore made me the Gryffindor prefect in order to try to curb my friends pranks."

"I think he made Bill prefect so me, Mia, and the others would stop looking for the Vaults."

"And I hear that worked out well," Remus said sarcastically. Lucy wrapped her arms around Remus' neck and grinned.

"Like your badge stopped you from joining your friends' fun?"

"Sometimes."

"Alright then," Lucy wondered with half lidded eyes and purr to her voice, "How does one bribe a prefect turned Professor?" Wolfishly Remus grinned down at Lucy.

"I can think of a few ways," he said before leaning down and kissing her.

* * *

**June 8, 1994**

Ever since she had decided on the house Constellation Commorancy the month prior Lucy Black had ordered Kreature to start on cleaning the house until she and Remus— and Dora and Penny —could all make a day of fixing up the house, repainting and such so that it was livable come the end of term

And make a day of it they had; all four of the magical adults had met up early and gone to a cheap muggle dinner Remus knew, it was, as the neon sign indicated open twenty four hours and the yellowing paint that has been applied to ceiling far before anyone at the table had been born seemed to be curling off and threatening to fall into Dora's cereal.

Whilst Dora and Penny bickered about weather cereal, was a soup or its own classification of food.

Remus ate his French toast bemusedly, his eyes swinging back and forth from Penny and Dora while Lucy picked at her watered down eggs before deciding simply to stick with the coffee. Remus had warned her the eggs weren't best and she hadn't listened.

Lucy, smiling, turned to Remus who starred on at the two girlfriends debate.

Lucy leaned into Remus' shoulder and loudly whispered into his ear, "They once had an argument whether a pop tart was technically a ravioli." That argument had quickly spread across the school aligning even the most unlikely of Slytherin and Gryffindors while tearing apart the closest of siblings apart, it had caused anarchy that sparked a tension that lead to both Dumbledore and McGonagall banning both foods.

That year Rowan had gifted Dora pop tarts for her birthday and Charlie had given Penny a frozen bag of ravioli on hers and the pair of them had jointly gifted the two cookbooks for Christmas.

"—It is," Dora commented breaking away from her current disagreement. She believed cereal was indeed a soup, Penny on the other hand did not. Lucy had long ago learned to not take sides no matter what the argument was, thought she had also learned it was better to impartially intervene— or rather, Lucy had learned it was easier and better for her to have Mia intervene —once Dora, disguised as the Headmaster, started coercing elves to make all the ravioli they served at dinner pop tart flavor.

"—It is not! Just like cereals not a soup, there's no stock!"

"But it's a liquid based meal served as a food rather than a beverage."

"Cereal has things in it!"

"Soups have things in it too," Remus said apologetically to Penny who glared at him, "Meat, noodles, things like that."

"You are worse than Barnaby." Lucy snorted because in her seventh year Barnaby had charmed a large, sandwich sized ravioli to taste the same as the brown sugar pop tarts that were served at breakfast and ate the whole thing before doing the same to a large pop tart that he had enchanted to taste like a raw, unflavored ravioli.

"You're just mad I'm right again!" Dora said tossing her head back triumphantly.

"You are not right—excuse me Miss?" Penny looked at the old, greying waitress who had been walking past the table with a bland expression on her face, "In your option is cereal soup?" Unamused the waitress looked at Remus who she had greeted when they had all walked in,

"Do you ever stop it with the weird friends?" And then she stalked to the kitchen. Penny looked affronted whilst Dora rubbed her shoulder soothingly. Lucy raised a brow at Remus,

"What did she mean by that?" Lucy wondered.

"You know how back in the war I used to do spy work?" _Yes_.

One night after a particularly bad nightmare on his part Remus had told her all about how right after he graduated he had been part of an organization— whenever he spoke of the organization he never gave a name, he always just left it at the organization —and how he was constantly assigned to go undercover and join wolf packs where he saw horrible things. Sometimes it was the pack that committed such horrors and sometimes it was a band of drunk wizards, angry and bigoted who came into the woods looking for a good old fashion wolf hunt.

"You were a spy!" Dora grinned, "When was this?"

"Oh—Er the war," Remus said, "I was part of a group to fight—" his voice lowered and Penny paled at the word Death Eaters "—And sometimes I'd be asked to spy on packs. It's how I know this place, one time I had to go under for months—nearly a year —and well, it's not like you could have an owl flying straight into camp you know." All three witches, Dora, Lucy and Penny, nodded. "So we'd meet here. Sometimes it was Lily or Cardac who met with me and sometimes it was James."

"Harry's dad?" Remus nodded,

"As much as he loved Lily and as much as she exposed him too he was still a pureblood."

" weirdest thing he ever asked the waitress?" Remus grinned reminiscently.

"What the phelly-vison was playing." Each of the girls laughed. Lucy, who was a pureblood as they came knew, due to Ted Tonks and his saint like patience, that it was actually called a television.

"What was it playing?" Penny wondered.

"Football."

"That's a sport right?" Lucy looked at both Penny and Remus who nodded; years ago it had been Ben Cooper who had explained muggle sports to her. "Is that the one with the bat?"

"That's cricket, football is played with a checkered ball."

"Oh, oops," Lucy chuckled when the clock on the wall above the kitchen window — the one that read e o'clock —caught her eye. "Pretty sure we should get going, if we plan on finishing up the house today."

Remus waved over the waitress by pretending to sign something in the air; the waitress, the tired old woman placed down the check with a begrudging "Here you go," before scuttling off behind the counter. Lucy with only a quick look at the total amount for the food threw down a handful of muggle currency she'd exchanged at Gringotts and Penny took the money and counted it. Dora leaned her head on Penny's shoulder; and Remus' arm rested on the back of Lucy's chair, wrapping around her shoulder causing Lucy to subconsciously lean into him.

When Penny placed the money on the table the four of them stood up— Remus arm dropped from around Lucy's shoulder and instead he took to holding her hand; Dora stuffed both her hands in her pants pockets and Penny grabbed the sweatshirt she had long ago stolen from Dora, who had stolen it from Lucy who had, once upon a time, taken it from Bill —and left the dinner, disapperating on the side of the dinner, away from muggle eyes.

….

Constellation Commorancy was in the middle of the woods; evergreens and other trees surrounded the house just outside the wards and enchantments Sirius the first had placed around the house, ensuring its safety. The two story house had seemingly been built into a hill, only to level out at the second floor where the lake was, reminding Lucy if the Slytherin common room and how for the most part that it was under the Black Lake.

"It's nice," Penny said from the treeline. The color of the wood had faded away over years of weathering but the roofing and windows and front door were all still intact.

"Yeah—" Dora turned to Lucy, smiling, her eyes twinkled with mischief, "Can I move in?" Lucy shrugged.

"There's seven bedrooms, three will be permanently occupied, so you can leave some stuff in a guest room dresser if you want." Dora snorted.

"I'm not doing that you'll steal my shit." The four of them started to walk to the house,

"Excuse me, I'm richer than Merlin why would I seal your shit?"

"You steal Bills—besides who's shirt is that?" Lucy looked down at the t-shirt she was wearing, it was a simple Silverstone shirt with the Union Jack on it. She looked back up at Dora— who was snickering victoriously into her hand —and grimanced.

"This doesn't mean anything," Lucy said as she effortlessly passed through the wards surrounding the property. Dora, Penny and Remus all stood behind her. Lucy pulled out her wand; "Patitur," She cast and the wards hummed as Remus and Dora and Penny all passed through.

"Groovy," Remus said to no one in particular; all three witches bursted out into a fit of giggles, Penny seemed to curl into herself as she wheezed. "What?" Lucy leaned up an pecked Remus on the corner of his mouth. Her fingers slid through his hair and she grinned at him, she could feel her body ache with love as she looked at him.

She was in love with him, and painfully so.

"No ones said groovy since the seventies babe." Remus grinned,

"You called me babe."

"And? You call me love." Remus' brows raised.

"I do?" Lucy nodded,

"Yeah." A look Lucy couldn't quite name passed over Remus' face only to disappear as quickly as it'd come.

"Oh, alright." And then once more they were off towards the grandiose house. When the reached the patio Kreature, glaring at all of them except for Lucy, one dead the door, treating them.

"Mistress," he bowed deeply, he stepped aside and allowed them all in.

"Thank you Kreature," Lucy said to the elf who shut the door behind them as she took in the house. Lucy had been expecting it to be similar to that of Grimmauld Place, for the Wood to be dark and the drapes to cloud the windows and the wallpaper to remind a guest of a crypt but that's not what she got. The floors were a light, still freshly varnished looking wood, all of the partially moth eaten drapes were drawn back, allowing the light to shine in, and the walls were painted bright colors.

"No way this house belonged to a Black," she muttered, stepping further into the home, almost toeing off her shoes at the door before realizing that perhaps that wasn't the smartest thing to do.

"Why'd you say that?" Penny wondered.

"There's no elf heads on the wall, or portraits here tell me I'm a disgrace or—" it's not like Grimmauld Place in the slightest.

"What house do you own has elf heads in it?" Penny asked, both she and Remus frowned.

"My mothers," Lucy muttered. She walked further into the house, there were no cobwebs or pools of dried blood that stained the floor, no boggarts shook the closet door. None, but what caught Lucy's eye was in the corner of the room, stacked high were a pile of magically moving black and white pictures. Lucy picked them up and saw a man and woman she didn't recognize at first.

Sirius the first and his wife to be. The pair couldn't have been more than sixteen; though for all Lucy knew the picture had been taken the day before she had been murdered.

Sirius the First had the same black curls her mother and father had, had, the same roguish smile the man who shared his name had and the same dimples she had. But he had something no one in her family had; eyes that shone like the jewels that sat in the family vault. His wife to be, the last Shaqif, had her hand wrapped tightly in his, her hijab— Lucy couldn't tell what color it was just that it —had beautiful floral patterns pressed across the fabric, and her smile was so bright it was nearly blinding.

The ring on her finger caught her eye, it was the same one that sat in the Black family vault, the very same one Regulus had once taken Lucy to see because that was what he had planned to give Claudia at their wedding.

Her heart twisted.

"What'cha got there?" Dora flounced over, tripping over her own two feet and nearly sending Lucy and herself sprawling into the pile of pictures. Lucy dropped the picture frame into the pile as Dora barreled into her back and her hands, with Quidditch player reflexes, managed to catch herself on the walls.

"Pictures Dora." Penny and Remus walked over,

"Of what?" Lucy picked up the picture she had dropped and handed it to Dora,

"Sirius the first, the one who built the house."

"Who's the woman he's with?" Penny asked looking over Dora's shoulder; Remus did the same on the opposite side.

"She was supposed to be his fiancée, it's who he built the house for." Penny frowned at the words supposed to be,

"What happened to her?"

"She was murdered their last year of school."

"Merlin," Penny muttered. Lucy took the picture which Dora handed to her and placed it in the pile before she turned to Kreature,

"These are all the pictures in the house?" She asked him. The elf nodded slowly,

"Yes Mistress."

"Then take these to Grimmauld, feel free to put them in my old room. After that you can start packing up my apartment."

"Of course Mistress." Then with a loud pop both the elf and the stack of pictures were gone. Lucy straightened her back, and pulled out the houses blueprints she'd taken from the file Gringotts had sent her.

"So there's several bedrooms— three on this floor —three bathrooms— two are upstairs —a study, the basement, the kitchen and dining room. If we all take a room to check for boggarts, fix the drapes and make sure there's no doxies or anything we should be done sooner rather than later—I can take the study."

The other three nodded.

"I can take the kitchen," Penny said.

"Dining room should be easy enough," Dora voiced.

"Remus?"

"Bathroom."

"Groovy," Lucy mocked lightly, Remus reached out and tried to grab Lucy around the waist only for her to dance out of his reach, laughing as she did so, making her way down the left hand hallway to the row of doors, the first being the study.

The study wasn't the largest room Lucy Black had ever seen but it was still a big room.

The study's walls— the ones that were lined with bookshelves —were a coffee brown, the desk that sat in the middle of the room reminded Lucy of her father's, it was a business man's desk and the leather chair that was pushed into the desk was a seat fit for a business man.

The cabinet next to the door was without a doubt a liquor cabinet, one with whiskeys and bourbons Sirius The First must have drank when all five of his nieces and nephews had been born toasting to their good health and long lives.

What was left of the large windows curtains wasn't worth trying to salvage and so carefully Lucy took the mostly degraded and eaten fabric off the pole it hung from and tossed it into the trash.

The bookshelves were clean of dust; Lucy sat in the leather chair and slowly, with her wand in hand, opened up each desk drawer. The bottom drawer was filled with quills that had been splintered from old age and ink that was near two centuries old.

Lucy threw everything in the drawer out. The next we're filled with business papers from families like the Flints, MacMillans and other pureblood families from the sacred twenty-eight the Blacks had done business with over the centuries; she kept them in there, scuffling them against the desk neatening them out.

The third and top drawer was filled with letters from Iola Black-Hutchins; Lucy, as did every Black child, knew her story all too well. Iola, oldest of the bunch, Sirius the first and Phineas Nigellus older sister had been burned off the family tapestry at the young age of twenty two for refusing her arranged marriage and marrying a muggle butcher named Bill Hutchens instead.

Lucy frowned as she shuffled through the letters, each begging her youngest brother to write back, that she was sorry and she loved him— Y**ou used to call me your Aya, do you remember that? Whenever you would have a nightmare or after a lashing you used to run to me crying calling for your Aya, now this is me calling for you Sirius. Please I cannot die knowing you hate me. Phineas and Elladora have cast me out the same as father and mother but I beg you, do not let me die alone in this strange world** —and that all she wanted was for him to be there when she passed on.

Lucy shuffled through the letters looking for the cause of death only to read that Iola Black had died from Dragon Pox, a completely curable disease today but a death sentence in the mid eighteenth century.

Lucy had never contracted Dragon Pox but she had seen both Regulus and half of the Weasley children suffer through it. Meiri's blanket had nearly caught fire one of the times she had sneezed— sparks flying out of the patience nose was a common symptom —while Regulus had been green nearly a month after he had overcome the illness.

Lucy folded the letters and slid them into the inside pocket of her jean jacket before she stood up. She looked at the tiny trash can and pointed her wand at it; "Evanesco." The quills and ink and fabric curtain all disappeared into a state of nothingness.

Lucy pushed the chair back into the desk. She looked around the room once more before nodding, _I should get Kreature a new tea cozy,_ she thought, _For all his bigoted ideas and nastiness he dose good work._

Lucy then entered the room next to the study, a light pink bedroom with a dresser and desk on opposite walls and the twin bed in the middle of the room, pressed up against the back wall, the oil lamp on the bedside table was next to a small, open music jewelry box that showed a beautifully carved ballerina standing silently. The wooden crate ate the end of the bed shook and Lucy readied her wand, Lucy swished her wand and the top of the crest opened.

Lucy expected a swarm of doxies or a boggart to jump out at her, not a tiny black Keezel. Lucy and the Keezels eyes met; neither moved for a movement. The Keezels striking green eyes sparkled up apricatingly at Lucy, it's pointed ears twitched, breaking the tension, and the magical feline walked over to Lucy and rubbed its head against her leg, it's skinny body and tail pressed against her as well.

Lucy let out a breathy laugh as she stopped up the animal, "How did you get in there?" She wondered in a baby voice the Keezel simply meowed as Lucy cuddled it to her chest.

"Remus! Dora! Penny! Come look what I found!" She shouted out into the hallway. Remus was the first to appear, only to freeze in the archway of the door and look distastefully onto the cat. Penny and Dora appeared at his sides and both Witches cooed at the cat;

"Where the hell did you find him? Her?" Penny asked. Lucy he'd the cat up under it's front two legs and saw that it was in fact a, "Her. And I found her locked in the chest, the little baby—"

"—That thing is fully grown—" each of the females ignored Remus' remark, the Keezel seemed to smirk at him in response,

"—Must've gone looking for food and gotten into trouble."

"She's adorable, you're keeping her right?" Dora wondered. Lucy cradled the cat in her arms,

"Would you like that, staying with me?" The Keezel meowed and Lucy beamed. She had never had an animal before; when she had gone to Diagon Alley for her first year shopping she had known that number twelve Grimmauld Place wasn't a proper home for anyone— especially a helpless animal —and when she had stayed with the Weasleys she couldn't bring herself to take up more room in the Burrow and then she had landed her spot with the Tornadoes and hadn't had time to own an animal of any kind.

Lucy turned to Remus, smiling, "I have a Keezel!" Though his eyes didn't shine as he looked at the Keezel he smiled back at a beaming Lucy.

"Congrats, I've seemed to have left my cigars at home." Lucy stuck her tongue out at the werewolf's sarcasm. "Seriously though, why do you plan on naming it—her?"

Lucy pressed her lips together for a moment before a metaphorical candle lit above her head; "Shebia," She said. "How's that sound?" The Keezel meowed loudly, agreeingly.

"Kreature?" The elf appeared by Lucy's side with a pop, causing the Keezel to jump, Lucy pressed the feline aginst herself, rubbing down its back soothingly until it stopped squirming, perched upon her shoulder.

"Mistress?" The elf deeply bowed.

"Can you cook up a fish for the new member of the family, she's been locked up in that chest for who knows how long."

"Of course Mistress," And then once more he was gone. Lucy places the Keezel on the ground lightly, the Keezel stared up at Lucy before she turned to Remus and sat on the floor, her long tail wrapped around her body.

"I'm done with the bathroom," Remus said.

"Groovy," Lucy snarked and Remus sighed loudly as Dora and Penny giggled, passing him in the doorway as they headed back towards the kitchen and dining room.

"Are you ever going to let that go?"

"No, When we're old as shit I'm going to engrave it as the epitaph on your headstone when your dead," Lucy claimed. Raised a single brow;

"So you plan on out living me?"

"I plan on outliving everyone," Lucy joked sardonically. The idea of outliving the people she loved, of once again being left behind, killed her. The idea of living another eighty years terrified her; life hurt and to experience another eighty years of the hurt she'd already gone through? She rather be the first to die, to fade into nothingness and await the people she called family.

Remus reached out for Lucy— she placed her hand in his, and wondered who's hand was more calloused —and pulled her against him; the Keezel Shebia moved away from the pair and onto the closed crate where she tucked her legs underneath her and wrapped her tail around her body.

Lucy felt Remus' breath ran against her face; antagonizing slow Remus dragged a hand up Lucy's rib cage while the other, the one had that been holding her hand gripped her waist, pulling it against him.

_I love him._

Lucy pressed her lips against Remus', his fingers curled around the back of her shirt — Dora's shirt —while her hands rested on his shoulders. I love him. Their teeth, as the kiss deepened, mashed against one another. I love him. Lucy stepped back— Remus stepped forward with her. I love him. Remus kissed down her neck and Lucy took a sharp breath of air.

"I love you." Remus froze, his lips hovered over Lucy's collarbone; Lucy stilled, her hands flat against the top of his head and base of his neck. Remus reeled back.

"What?" His eyes were wide with panic and his skin was pale, Lucy wasn't sure if she was breathing.

"I didn't say anything," Lucy told him.

"You said you loved me," he accused. Lucy felt her face crumble. She felt her heart behind to tremble.

"I—is that such a bad thing?" She asked him and Remus stepped back from her.

"I'm a werewolf Lucy!" His voice raised. "I'm ten years older than you—"

"—You know neither of those matter to me," she told him, "I love you."

"Stop saying that!" Lucy jumped and stepped back as Remus' hands flew up to his hair, "Don't say that."

"And why not!" Lucy demanded, she stepped forward, "I love you—"

"—I don't love you," Remus said coldly, his voice cutting her off, Lucy felt her stomach drop, "I can't." He took two steps back and then he left; Lucy could hear Dora from the living room ask Remus what was going on only for the front door to slam in reply.

I can't. I can't. I—

Lucy's knees gave out and she crumpled to the ground, tears welled up in her grey eyes; Penny appeared in the doorway, Dora behind her. Penny rushed to Lucy's side while Dora kneeled in front of her,

"Lucy, what's wrong?"

"He can't love me—who can love a Black Dora?" Lucy asked, her voice shook as tears slipped down her face._ I knew it; no one can love a Black, not even a werewolf. We're unlovable._

_I'm unlovable._

* * *

**June 9, 1994**

Lucy had stayed, after crying, to finish the house, Dora and Penny had helped as well; and the pair of them had both offered to stay the night with Lucy and her new Keezel but Lucy knew Dora had a double to work the next morning and Penny was opening so with the innate Black talent of burying her emotions she waved the two witches off, promising she'd be fine.

"I'm fine," she had told the pair as they stood on the front patio, "Honestly my worlds not over just because someone said they're not in love with me." Can't be in love with me; like being in love with me was something horrid, something cursed, something repulsive.

And it wasn't; her world wasn't over just because Remus Lupin said he wasn't in love with her. Couldn't be in love with her. Or at least that's what she told herself as she sat in the study of her new home, a nearly empty bottle aged bourbon on the table as a wet glass next to it.

Her world was still fully intact, even if she was drinking alcohol at nine at night on a Sunday with nothing in her stomach. It wasn't like she had any classes the next day anyway. She was fine, her world was fine. Her heart was fine.

Nymphadora Tonks appeared in the mouth of study, still wearing her Aurora uniform, her wand still holstered to her thigh and her robes somewhat drenched from the rain outside.

"D-Dora!" Lucy cheered from her seat, her speech was slurred and the room was slightly spinning. "What-What'er you doin' here?"

"Penny told me you haven't been answering her owls, I got worried," Dora said coming into the study.

"Why?" Lucy forwent the glass and finished the Achilles straight from the bottle.

"Because you just had your heart broken for the first time yesterday—"

"—I expected it," Lucy snapped grouchy, her eyes narrowing at the thought of Remus Lupin. She could love him in spite of his condition and his nonexistent bank vault and the fact he was ten years old but he just couldn't love her?

Her mother couldn't. Maybe it wasn't because she was a Black but because of her herself, maybe there was something about her?

"You don't mean that, you just don't want to seem hurt, I know you Lucy," Dora said and Lucy laughed, loud and emptily.

"I don't mean that, Dora everyone leaves me, Sirius left twice, Regulus straight up died, Bill went to Egypt, Jane went to Azkaban, Charlie and Mia left for Romania and now Remus bloody fuckin' Lupin—the only person who hasn't left me is you and I don't know why!" Lucy exploded. The chair fell back against the ground as Lucy wobbled in her feet. "Why haven't you left me?"

Dora's face cracked, "Because you're family." She had said it the same way someone would point out that the sky was blue or Pluto only had two moons, she had said it so obviously.

"Like that matters," Lucy muttered, Sirius had left her twice, Regulus had died thinking only of Claudia Burke, Araminta had Ophelia and died and Narcissa constantly left her in favor of her own family to worry about despite knowing what was going on in number twelve Grimmauld Place; blood meant jack shit in a family crazy about it.

"It dose, Lucy look at me," Lucy did and Dora stood across the desk from her, her hands on top of her own and her eyes burning, "We're family, I'm not going anywhere." Lucy's lip quivered.

"Then tell me what's wrong with me Dora, why he can't love me? Like it's a bloody fucking curse!" Lucy ripped her hand away from Dora and threw the empty bottom into a bookcase. "Why can't someone love me?"

Lucy sank slowly to the floor and Dora made her way around the desk and collected a sniveling Lucy into her arms, "Someone can, you just have to give it time okay?"

* * *

**June 12, 1994**

It was obvious that something had gone down between Lucy and Remus, the pair now sat on opposite ends of the table and the night before Lucy, patrolling with Sprout — and Flitwick and Burbage —instead of Remus, had found the Weasley twins, both of whom knew Lucy's usual patrolling partner was the werewolf, trying to set up a prank outside Ravenclaw tower.

And yet no one brought it up. Not the Professors and not the students.

Lucy had invited Theo and Tahani to dinner in her office that night which had someone turned into dinner with Theo, Tahani, the Weasleys, Meiri, Ophelia and Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. Not that she minded, it was how she foresaw the rest of her summers going anyway.

If her Keezel had taken to her right away it had adopted Meiri Prewett— who sat at the long dinner table Lucy had, had Kreature bring over with the magical feline in her lap —as Theo constantly tried to stop Meiri from sneaking her food.

"But she's so cute Theo, look at her!" Theo just blinked down at Meiri Prewetts lap.

"Adorable."

"Knew you were a softy Nott," Ron teased from across the table, snickering into his food. Ophelia laughed loudly— it sent a chill down Lucy's spin as Ophelia cackled; it had always reminded her far too much of Bellatrix's to ever properly appreciate —at one of the twins jokes.

"—And I'm just saying who are we to deny the Goblins wands?" Hermione argued against Percy Weasley, "First Goblins and then who?"

"It's not like that Hermione, Goblins have their own magic," the older boy said, "It's different for witches and wizards, Goblins don't turn into dangerous monsters if they can't properly channel their magic."

Ginny and Tahani sat closest to Lucy talking about which magical band was their favorite; Bludger to the Head, an American rock band or Devils Snare, a Swedish Deathmetal band that Ophelia had introduced them too.

"Okay but at least you can understand Bludger to the Head," Tahani said, Ginny grinned as she leaned across the table, her knobby elbows knocking against the wood.

"Yeah but what's the point of understanding the lyrics if they have no meaning?—"

"—I have to say I like the Tornadoes or Lucy will kill me," another twin said funnily to Harry.

"I will not you troll," Lucy smirked, "I'd only maim you."

"See Potter, told you."

"Technically you said she'd kill you." The twins mouth fell open indignantly,

"You wound me! Taking the side of a staff member, boot locker!" Lucy grabbed a pig bone she had picked clean and chucked it at the twin, who dodged the bone, laughing, only to nearly fall off his chair when it hit his brother Percy.

"Sorry Percy—George—"

"—I'm Fred—"

"—I don't give a shit, be nice to Harry you git."

"I thought you said I don't have favorites?" Fred cried,

"I don't, I just like you less." Lucy laughed.

"Like you like Lupin less?" The room quited instantly, Lucy blinked at Fred who Percy elbowed harshly;

"We said we wouldn't ask her about that!" Percy hissed.

"Shut it Perce!" Fred snapped, he looked at Lucy, "Did he say something about Sirius Black to you again?"

"No, no, it's complicated."

"How could I be complicated?" Ron wondered, "What did he do?" Lucy could feel George Weasley's eyes burn through her.

"It just is." It was quiet for a moment.

"Did you like him?" Meiri wondered, "Like fancy him?" George made a snorting sound in the back of his throat. Percy and Fred turned to him; Lucy glared. Ophelia looked at her boyfriend with raised brows.

"Forge? Would you like to say something?" Fred asked his twin.

"No?" George said, though it came out like a question. He reached for his glass of water and drank the thing whole, all while he avoided Lucy's glare.

"George?" Percy leveled a reprimanding glare. George shrugged at Lucy.

"Professor Lupin and Lucy were shagging!" He declared loudly. No one reacted, it was quite enough to hear Sebia purring lauding on Meiri's lap and the wind howling through the forest outside.

And then they all exploded. Theo and Tahani cringed, Meiri made loud retching noises.

"Someone please obliviate me!" Percy cried into his hands, disgusted.

"I knew it!" Ophelia cried, jumping from her seat and to feet, "I knew you kissed him at Christmas," she turned to George, "Hugging my arse!"

"Why the bloody fuck do you know that?" Fred demanded of his twin, "Why didn't I?"

"Isn't that illegal?" Ron cried,

"Why would that be illegal Ronald?" Hermione crowed. The ginger boy shrugged,

"Because it's Lucy!" Harry snickered into his wrist; "She can't be shagging Professors!"

"She's a Professor Ron," Harry reminded his friend. Lucy burned pink in her seat.

"You have a sex life?" Ginny cried over the voices of her brothers. Everyone immediately became quite as the words _sex life_ left Ginny Wesley's mouth.

"I—yes," Lucy nodded at Ginny, who nodded. She then wondered why Professor Lupin; "As opposed to who, Snape? Sinestra?" Ginny laughed.

"Seriously Lucy, why Professor Lupin?" Percy asked, she could hear his unspoken question; Why him after everything he said?

"I liked him." _I'm in love with him._

"Then what happened?" Ophelia asked.

Lucy could tell them that Remus didn't love her, but she knew the kids— Harry and the others, they loved Lupins classes —and hearing how he'd hurt her, they'd choose her and suffer the rest of the month hating their favorite class.

So she didn't. "We just didn't work, sometimes adult relationships just don't work."

Ophelia looked so much like Andromeda and Narcissa in the way she silently called bullshit; in the way her eyes narrowed and her lips pressed together and her head tilted.

"So Professor Lupin didn't do anything?" Ron wondered and Lucy smiled at him fondly,

"No," she lied, "It was a mutual thing."

"So we can still like his class, cause hating it was really hard." Lucy smiled, it was more forced than it was natural, but she smiled,

"Course you can."

* * *

**June 16, 1994**

Lucy, with her hands in her pockets had been walking around the Hogwarts Castle— it wasn't late enough for the moon to have risen over the moutin just yet but the blue sky had changed to a burning yellowish orange —when she came across Severus Snape, carrying a small bubbling cauldron of what Lucy had come to know was Remus' wolfsbane potion.

"Snape," Lucy greeted.

"Black," Snape growled as he always did, he held the cauldron out to her, "Take this to Lupin will you."

"Excuse me, I'm not your house elf Snape."

"No but Lupin is your pet last I heard," Snape mocked, "The Headmaster has called me to his office but seeing as I can't go until I give this to Lupin, lest we want a rogue wood prowling around the castle."

Lucy snatched the cauldron from Snape, glaring at him, "Hopefully this give you time to shower before meeting the Headmaster, lest we want you to meet him looking like a keeper," Lucy mocked him. Snape growled through his yellowed teeth before storming past her.

"Dick."

Lucy turned on her heel and headed towards Remus' classroom door which was worringinly unlocked. With furrowed brows Lucy entered his unlocked office, worriedly she called out his name as she did so— his office was never to be unlocked on the night of the full moon —and saw it, spread out open on his desk. A familiar looking map.

_Four year old Lucy Black sat on her older brother Sirius' bed as he showed her something amazing. Though the door was locked and she could hear her mother yelling about something or another and her brother play the piano in the parlor._

_"This is parchment Siri," Lucy said, "Nothing Special about it." Sirius grinned that mischievously, trouble making grin he always did before filling their mother up and landed Lucy his wand._

_"Tap it with my wand, say I Solemnly Swear to be bad." Lucy did and suddenly ink appeared._

_Messrs Prongs would like to congratulate the young little Miss Padfoot on getting ahold such a marvelous piece of magic and wishes her a good day and a clean get away._

_Lucy looked up at Sirius funnily, grinning, "Whos mis-sure Prongs?"_

_"Messrs, Goose, it means mister in French, and that's Jamie."_

_"Your friend!" Sirius laughed, nodding,_

_"Yeah, come on read what else is there." Lucy turned back to the parchment._

_Messrs Padfoot wants to add that he always knew his little goose would follow in his footsteps and is as proud as any other mother duck. He would also like to hint that perhaps his goose should Swear by no Good._

_"You! You're Padfoot!" He was the only person in the world who called her his little goose._

_"Knew someone in this family had to have the brains," Sirius laughed._

_Messrs Moony would like comment and say that he truly feels bad for Professor McGongall if young Miss Padfoot follows in her brothers steps. He would also like to say that this is also good for getting to class on time._

_Messrs Wormtail would like bid little Miss Padfoot a fond farewell and hopes that she uses this to get out of rather than in trouble. Not that he would be surprised if she used it for both._

_Uses it, "Use it for what Siri?" A four year old Lucy wondered._

_"Tap the parchment again only this time say you solemnly swear that you're up to no good."_

_"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," Lucy said tapping the parchment and the words that had been there faded and instead something new appeared._

_Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs proudly present the Marauder's Map._

_Sirius opened the parchment and Lucy marveled at the map in front of her, at the moving footprints of— "Dumbledore!" Lucy gasped._

_"Yeah, any idea what this is yet?" Sirius wondered. Lucy shook her head, her eyes glued to the parchment._

_"It's a map of Hogwarts, see how the footprints labeled Dumbledore keep moving?" Lucy nodded, "Well that's cause he's pacing. See the map shows everyone and everything in real time, meaning right now Headmaster Dumbledore is pacing in his study."_

_Lucy tiny mouth fell open. "How? Reggie said there were no maps of Hogwarts."_

_The week prior Regulus had told her how he and his friend Barty Crouch had accidentally gotten lost in the dungeons and when she asked why didn't he just buy a map of Hogwarts he had laughed and explained that because of the same magic that kept their home safe from muggles a map couldn't be drawn up of Hogwarts._

_"Yeah well Regs just not as bright as me now is he?" Lucy shook her head grinning,_

_"No one is Siri!"_

"Why does Remus have the map?" Lucy wondered before it caught her eye. The names Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley, Meiri Prewett and Remus Lupin, all in the shrieking shack with Sirius Black.

…

Lucy could hear them, she made her way through the tunnel Remus had told her all about, her heart was pounding and not for the first time in her life she was wanting blood.

"—He has been telling Dumbledore all year that I am not to be trusted. He has his reasons... you see, Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick which involved me —" she heard Remus explain as she finally got to the tunnels entrance of the Shrieking shack.

There was no shuffling or swearing or enchantments flying; just Remus Lupin in a calm voice explaining. Gone was the liar who had promised to help her stop him and in was the traitor who Snape was right about.

_He used me,_ Lucy thought fleetingly before anger rushed through her. Ron and Meiri, and Harry And Hermionie were in danger because she hadn't considered Remus Lupin a threat. Because she had failed to protect them.

Someone, He, made a derisive noise. "It served him right," he sneered. "Sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to... hoping he could get us expelled..."

"Severus was very interested in where I went every month." Remus told the kids, "We were in the same year, you know, and we — er — didn't like each other very much. He especially disliked James. Jealous, I think, of James's talent on the Quidditch field... anyway Snape had seen me crossing the grounds with Madam Pomfrey one evening as she led me toward the Whomping Willow to transform. Sirius thought it would be — er — amusing, to tell Snape all he had to do was prod the knot on the tree trunk with a long stick, and he'd be able to get in after me. Well, of course, Snape tried it — if he'd got as far as this house, he'd have met a fully grown werewolf — but your father, who'd heard what Sirius had done, went after Snape and pulled him back, at great risk to his life... Snape glimpsed me, though, at the end of the tunnel. He was forbidden by Dumbledore to tell anybody, but from that time on he knew what I was..." Lucy crept up the shacks steps quietly. Her heart beat loudly in her ears.

"So that's why Snape doesn't like you," said Harry slowly, "because he thought you were in on the joke?"

And then Lucy kicked open the door, her wand pointed directly at Remus.

Hermione screamed. He leapt to his feet, Meiri let out a choking sound and Harry Potters shoulders slumped relieved.

"Lucy," Remus breath, his face twisted, "It's not—" Lucy could see him over Remus' shoulder shock over took his face as he looked at her.

"You used me." She moved her body; her wand forever pointed at Remus, as she moved between Remus and him and the kids.

"No," Remus' eyes pleaded for her to believe him. "Lucy —" Remus began, but the ex-Seeker overrode him.

"I believed you were a good man, I was ready to choose you over Penny if push came to shove because I thought you were deserving of it! Shows what I know, huh?"

"Lucy, you're making a mistake," said Lupin urgently. "You haven't heard everything— I can explain; I never used you I swear it —Sirius is not here to kill Harry."

"Save your breath, neither of you have many left," she said softly.

"Lucy," said Lupin softly. "Is a broken heart worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban?" BANG! Thin, snakelike cords burst from the end of Lucy's wand and twisted themselves around Lupin's mouth, wrists, and ankles; he overbalanced and fell to the floor, unable to move. With a roar of rage, he started toward Lucy, but she pointed her wand straight between his eyes.

"Give me a reason," she whispered. "Give me a reason to do it, and I swear I will." Lucy was ready to kill him, to rid herself and the world of him, but not at the expense of the kids.

Mia still woke up screaming because she felt like she had killed Jacob in the vault, she wouldn't allow one of the kids to face that.

Harry stood there, paralyzed as Ron looking confused, still fought to keep hold on the struggling Scabbers. Meiri worked quietly to splint her cousins leg, as she had seen Hagrid to do the forest creatures a dozen times but Hermione, however, took an uncertain step toward Lucy and said, in a very breathless voice, "Madam Lucy — it wouldn't hurt to hear what they've got to say, w-would it?"

"Hermione," Lucy hissed, "He's a liar, everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie.

"But if — if there was a mistake —"

"But there won't be!" Lucy shouted her eyes trained on him, Hermione fell silent. "Will there be? There is no innocence left in you is there? No heart, no good, no love, just a pitch black soul." Lucy could see the hurt in his eyes, the faux emotion Voldemort's right hand wouldn't have been able to possess and she felt sick. Regulus, the brother who repented his actions was dead, and he, Sirius Orion Black, was alive. "Vengeance is very sweet," Lucy breathed at him, "How I hoped I would be the one to catch you..."

"As long as this boy brings his rat up to the castle" — he jerked his head at Ron — "I'll come quietly..."

"Up to the castle?" said Lucy silkily. "I don't think we need to go that far. Dear say I don't think we need to leave this room, you me and Remus, I think we'll be fine right here." He had to have seen how sure she was, how ready she was prepared to kill him because what little color there was in his face left it.

"You — you've got to hear me out," he croaked. "The rat — look at the rat —"

"I'm not five, I don't worship the ground you walk on anymore, and I'm not eleven and in need of a home, I won't fall for your games now shut up. Meiri help Ron to his feet, the four of you should head to the castle and let the Headmaster know what had happened," she said. Lucy clicked his fingers, and the ends of the cords that bound Remus flew to her hands. Perhaps she wouldn't kill Remus, perhaps she would leave him to rot alone in his old cell.

Or perhaps she would kill him. All she knew for certain was that at least one of them would be dead by the night's end.

Harry, in three long strides crossed the room and blocked the door.

"Harry what are you doing?" Lucy worried. Had he imperiused the boy? Confounded him? Could Lucy in good conscience even stun him— a young teen, a child who she herself had begun to care for—knowing he had no control over himself?

"Professor Lupin could have killed me about a hundred times this year," Harry said. "I've been alone with him loads of times, having defense lessons against the Dementors. If he was helping Black, why didn't he just finish me off then?"

"I—I don't know, he didn't kill you that night in the tower, perhaps he has more to do in his old masters way." His eyes flashed indignantly but he kept his mouth shut.

"I want to hear him out, hear them," Harry said.

"Harry," Lucy sighed, "I grew up with him, he's a liar—"

"But you didn't did you?" Harry shot back, "He ran away when you were a kid and jailed when you entered school. You didn't grow up with him."

"Harry!" Meiri hissed from Ron's side.

"You're right Harry, he ran away and then he was imprisoned, he was imprisoned because he not only murdered a close friend and twelve muggles but your parents."

"Then I think I deserve to know why." Lucy stared into Harry's eyes before taking a step back, her wand still drawn and pointed between his eyes,

"You even breath in a way I don't like I'll kill you." He nodded stiffly,

"Can-can I free Remus." Lucy glared at struggling werewolf before flicking her wand and making the ropes that had bound him disappear. Slowly, with his help, Remus stood up.

"Thank you," Remus muttered lowly to Lucy, "You have—"

"Shut up Lupin." Hurt flashed across his face but he stopped talking. He turned to Harry and thanked him too.

"I'm still not saying I believe you," Harry told Remus.

"Then it's time we offered you some proof," said Remus. "You, boy," he said to Ron who Lucy stepped in front of, Remus shot her an exasperated look and leaned around her, "Give me Peter, please. Now."

Ron clutched Scabbers closer to his chest. "Come off it," he said weakly. "Are you trying to say he broke out of Azkaban just to get his hands on Scabbers? I mean..." He looked up at Meiri and then Harry and lastly Hermione for support, "Okay, say Pettigrew could turn into a rat — there are millions of rats — how's he supposed to know which one he is after if he was locked up in Azkaban?"

"You know, Sirius, that's a fair question," said Lupin, turning to Black and frowning slightly. "How did you find out where he was?"

Lucy tensioned when he put one of his claw-like hands inside his robes and only relaxed when instead of a wand he took out a crumpled piece of paper, which he smoothed flat and held out to show the others.

It was the photograph of Ron and his family that had appeared in the Daily Prophet the previous summer, and there, on Ron's shoulder, was Scabbers.

"How did you get this?" Lucy demanded, thunderstruck. Remus took the picture from him.

"Fudge," he answered, "When he came to inspect Azkaban last year, he gave me his paper. And there was Peter, on the front page on this boy's shoulder... I knew him at once... how many times had I seen him transform? And the caption said the boy would be going back to Hogwarts... to where Harry was..."

"My God," said Lupin softly, staring from Scabbers to the picture in the paper and back again. "His front paw..."

"What about it?" said Ron defiantly.

"He's got a toe missing," said Black.

"Of course," Lupin breathed. "So simple... so brilliant... he cut it off himself?"

"Just before he transformed," said Black. "When I cornered him, he yelled for the whole street to hear that I'd betrayed Lily and James. Then, before I could curse him, he blew apart the street with the wand behind his back, killed everyone within twenty feet of himself — and sped down into the sewer with the other rats..."

"Didn't you ever hear, Lucy? Ron?" said Lupin. "The biggest bit of Peter they found was his finger."

"Look, Scabbers probably had a fight with another rat or something! He's been in my family for ages, right —"

"Twelve years, in fact," said Lupin. "Didn't you ever wonder why he was living so long?" Yes, Lucy thought. She and Bill and Charlie constantly tried to get rid of the rat once Percy had come to Hogwarts, and everything just short of feeding him to an owl and poisoning always failed; he always came back.

"We — we've been taking good care of him!" said Meiri.

"Not looking too good at the moment, though, is he?" said Lupin. "I'd guess he's been losing weight ever since he heard Sirius was on the loose again..."

"He's been scared of that mad cat!" said Ron, nodding toward Crookshanks, who was still purring on the bed.

"This cat isn't mad," said Black hoarsely. He reached out a bony hand and stroked Crookshanks's fluffy head. "He's the most intelligent of his kind I've ever met. He recognized Peter for what he was right away. And when he met me, he knew I was no dog. It was a while before he trusted me... Finally, I managed to communicate to him what I was after, and he's been helping me..."

"What do you mean?" breathed Hermione.

"He tried to bring Peter to me, but couldn't... so he stole the passwords into Gryffindor Tower for me... As I understand it, he took them from a boy's bedside table..." Lucy's brain seemed to be sagging under the weight of what he was hearing. It was absurd... Keezels were smart— Half Keezels as well —but yet…

"But Peter got wind of what was going on and ran for it," croaked Black. "This cat — Crookshanks, did you call him? — told me Peter had left blood on the sheets... I supposed he bit himself... Well, faking his own death had worked once."

"And why did he fake his death?" Harry said furiously. "Because he knew you were about to kill him like you killed my parents!"

"No," said Lupin, "Harry—"

"And now you've come to finish him off!" Lucy fixed the grip on her wand, waiting for either man to lunge at the shouting boy. Blacks never had well managed temperaments and they certainly weren't noted for their patients.

"Yes, I have," he said, with an evil look at Scabbers. "Then I should've let Lucy stop you!" Harry shouted.

"Harry," said Remus hurriedly, "Don't you see? All this time we've thought Sirius betrayed your parents, and Peter tracked him down — but it was the other way around, don't you see? Peter betrayed your mother and father — Sirius tracked Peter down —"

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Harry yelled. "HE WAS THEIR SECRET-KEEPER! HE SAID SO BEFORE YOU TURNED UP! HE SAID HE KILLED THEM!" Harry was pointing at Black, who shook his head slowly; the sunken eyes were suddenly over bright.

"Harry... I as good as killed them," he croaked. "I persuaded Lily and James to change to Peter at the last moment, persuaded them to use him as Secret-Keeper instead of me... I'm to blame, I know it... The night they died, I'd arranged to check on Peter, make sure he was still safe, but when I arrived at his hiding place, he'd gone. Yet there was no sign of a struggle. It didn't feel right. I was scared. I set out for your parents' house straight away. And when I saw their house,destroyed, and their bodies... I realized what Peter must've done... what I'd done..." His voice broke. He turned away.

"Enough of this," said Remus, and there was a steely note in his voice Lucy had never heard before. "There's one certain way to prove what really happened. Ron, give me that rat."

"What are you going to do with him if Ron dose give him to you?" Meiri asked Remus tensely.

"Force him to show himself," said Remus. Meiri turned to Lucy who saw the girl from the corner of her eyes.

"If he really is a rat, it won't hurt him," Lucy promised.

Ron hesitated. Then at long last, he held out Scabbers and Remus took him. Scabbers began to squeak without stopping, twisting and turning, his tiny black eyes bulging in his head. "Ready, Sirius?" said Remus.

He had already retrieved Ron's wand from the Floor. He approached Remus and the struggling rat, and his wet eyes suddenly seemed to be burning in his face.

"Together?" he said quietly.

"I think so", said Remus, holding Scabbers tightly in one hand and his wand in the other. "On the count of three. One — two — THREE!"

A flash of blue-white light erupted from both wands; for a moment, Scabbers was frozen in midair, his small gray form twisting madly — both Ron and Meiri yelled — the rat fell and hit the floor. There was another blinding flash of light and then —

It was like watching a speeded-up film of a growing tree. A head was shooting upward from the ground; limbs were sprouting; a moment later, a man was standing where Scabbers had been, cringing and wringing his hands. Crookshanks was spitting and snarling on the bed; the hair on his back was standing up.

He was a very short man, hardly taller than Harry and Hermione. His thin, colorless hair was unkempt and there was a large bald patch on top. He had the shrunken appearance of a plump man who has lost a lot of weight in a short time. His skin looked grubby, almost like Scabbers's fur, and something of the rat lingered around his pointed nose and his very small, watery eyes. He looked around at them all, his breathing fast and shallow. Lucy saw his eyes dart to the door and back again.

"Well, hello, Peter," said Remus pleasantly, as though rats frequently erupted into old school friends around him. "Long time, no see."

Lucy felt her blood turn to ice, Peter Pettigrew was alive. Peter Pettigrew was—her lungs burned as they had done when she had nearly been drowned because it had been her brother imprisoned for his and twelve muggles murder.

Him. He did that; caused everything that had happened in the past twelve years to happen— for her to be suspended from Quidditch, to rely on strangers for safety —everything.

_I'll kill him,_ Lucy thought almost hysterically.

"S—Sirius... R—Remus..." Even Pettigrew's voice was squeaky. Again, his eyes darted toward the door. "My friends... my old friends..." His— Sirius' —wand arm rose, but Remus seized him around the wrist, gave him a warning took, then turned again to Pettigrew, his voice light and casual.

"We've been having a little chat, Peter, about what happened the night Lily and James died. You might have missed the finer points while you were squeaking around down there on the bed —"

"Remus," gasped Pettigrew, and Lucy could see beads of sweat broke out over his pasty face, "you don't believe him, do you...? He tried to kill me, Remus..."

"So we've heard," said Remus, more coldly. "I'd like to clear up one or two little matters with you, Peter, if you'll be so —"

"He's come to try and kill me again!" Pettigrew squeaked suddenly, pointing at Black, and Lucy saw that he used his middle finger, because his index was missing; though perhaps it was also a subtle way to flip him off. "He killed Lily and James and now he's going to kill me too... You've got to help me, Remus..."

Sirius' face looked more skull-like than ever as he stared at Pettigrew with his fathomless eyes. "No one's going to try and kill you until we've sorted a few things out," said Remus.

"Sorted things out?" squealed Pettigrew, looking wildly about him once more, eyes taking in the boarded windows and, again, the only door. "I knew he'd come after me! I knew he'd be back for me! I've been waiting for this for twelve years!"

"You knew Sirius was going to break out of Azkaban?" said Lucy drawing Pettigrews eyes to her, her brow furrowed. "When nobody has ever done it before? Not even I thought he was capable." She had always suspected Bellatrix to be the first to break out she had always been the most powerful, most unstable, most eccentric.

"He's got dark powers the rest of us can only dream of!" Pettigrew shouted shrilly. "How else did he get out of there? I suppose He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named taught him a few tricks!" Sirius started to laugh, a horrible, mirthless laugh that filled the whole room.

"Voldemort, teach me tricks?" He said.

Pettigrew flinched as though Sirius had brandished a whip at him.

"What, scared to hear your old master's name?" said Sirius. "I don't blame you, Peter. His lot aren't very happy with you, are they?"

"Don't know what you mean, Sirius—" muttered Pettigrew, his breathing faster than ever. His whole face was shining with sweat now.

"You haven't been hiding from me for twelve years," said Sirius, "You've been hiding from Voldemort's old supporters. I heard things in Azkaban, Peter... They all think you're dead, or you'd have to answer to them... I've heard them screaming all sorts of things in their sleep. Sounds like they think the double-crosser double-crossed them. Voldemort went to the Potters' on your information... and Voldemort met his downfall there. And not all Voldemort's supporters ended up in Azkaban, did they? There are still plenty out here, biding their time, pretending they've seen the error of their ways. If they ever got wind that you were still alive, Peter —"

"Don't know... what you're talking about..." said Pettigrew again, more shrill than ever. He wiped his face on his sleeve and looked up at Lupin. "You don't believe this — this madness, Remus —"

"I must admit, Peter, I have difficulty in understanding why an innocent man would want to spend twelve years as a rat," said Lupin evenly.

"Innocent, but scared!" squealed Pettigrew. "If Voldemort's supporters were after me, it was because I put one of their best men in Azkaban — the spy, Sirius Black!"

Sirius' face contorted.

"How dare you," he growled, sounding suddenly like the bear sized dog he had been, "I, a spy for Voldemort? When did I ever sneak around people who were stronger and more powerful than myself? But you, Peter — I'll never understand why I didn't see you were the spy from the start. You always liked big friends who'd look after you, didn't you? It used to be us... me and Remus... and James..." Pettigrew wiped his face again; he was almost panting for breath.

"Me, a spy... must be out of your mind... never... don't know how you can say such a —"

"Lily and James only made you Secret-Keeper because I suggested it," Black hissed, so venomously that Pettigrew took a step backward. "I thought it was the perfect plan... a bluff... Voldemort would be sure to come after me, would never dream they'd use a weak, talentless thing like you... It must have been the finest moment of your miserable life, telling Voldemort you could hand him the Potters."

Pettigrew was muttering distractedly; Lucy caught words like "far-fetched" and "lunacy," but she couldn't help paying more attention to the ashen color of Pettigrew's face and the way his eyes continued to dart toward the windows and door.

"Professor Lupin? Lucy?" said Hermione timidly. "Can — can I say something?"

"Certainly, Hermione," said Remus courteously. Lucy nodded,

"Of course."

"Well — Scabbers — I mean, this — this man — he's been sleeping in Harry's dormitory for three years. If he's working for You-Know-Who, how come he never tried to hurt Harry before now?"

_He'd been sleeping in Harry's dormitory because he had been with Ron,_ Lucy thought scathingly. Ron had been in as much danger as Harry; all the Weasleys had been.

_I'll kill him._

"There!" said Pettigrew shrilly, pointing at Ron with his maimed hand. "Thank you! You see, Remus? I have never hurt a hair of Harry's head! Why should I?"

"I'll tell you why," said Sirius, "Because you never did anything for anyone unless you could see what was in it for you. Voldemort's been in hiding for fifteen years, they say he's half dead. You weren't about to commit murder right under Albus Dumbledore's nose, for a wreck of a wizard who'd lost all of his power, were you? You'd want to be quite sure he was the biggest bully in the playground before you went back to him, wouldn't you? Why else did you find a wizard family to take you in? Keeping an ear out for news, weren't you, Peter? Just in case your old protector regained strength, and it was safe to rejoin him..."

Pettigrew opened his mouth and closed it several times. He seemed to have lost the ability to talk.

"Er — Mr. Black — Sirius?" said Hermione.

Sirius— the same way Lucy had used to when addressed as Lady Black —jumped at being addressed like this and stared at Hermione as though he had never seen anything quite like her.

"If you don't mind me asking, how — how did you get out of Azkaban, if you didn't use Dark Magic?"

"Thank you!" gasped Pettigrew, nodding frantically at her. "Exactly! Precisely what I —" Both Remus and Lucy silenced him with dark looks. Sirius frowned slightly at Hermione, but not as though he were annoyed with her. He seemed to be pondering his answer.

"I don't know how I did it," he said slowly. "I think the only reason I never lost my mind is that I knew I was innocent. That wasn't a happy thought, so the Dementors couldn't suck it out of me... but it kept me sane and knowing who I am... helped me keep my powers... so when it all became... too much... I could transform in my cell... become a dog. Dementors can't see, you know..." He swallowed. "They feel their way toward people by feeding off their emotions... They could tell that my feelings were less — less human, less complex when I was a dog... but they thought, of course, that I was losing my mind like everyone else in there, so it didn't trouble them. But I was weak, very weak, and I had no hope of driving them away from me without a wand...

"But then I saw Peter in that picture... I realized he was at Hogwarts with Harry... perfectly positioned to act, if one hint reached his ears that the Dark Side was gathering strength again..."

Pettigrew was shaking his head, mouthing noiselessly, but staring all the while at Sirius as though hypnotized. Lucy too, started at Sirius because she still hated him, still wanted to hurt him just because he was standing there, because he had left her.

"... Ready to strike at the moment he could be sure of allies... and to deliver the last Potter to them. If he gave them Harry, who'd dare say he'd betrayed Lord Voldemort? He'd be welcomed back with honors… So you see, I had to do something. I was the only one who knew Peter was still alive. It was as if someone had lit a fire In my head, and the Dementors couldn't destroy it... It wasn't a happy feeling... it was an obsession... but it gave me strength, it cleared my mind. So, one night when they opened my door to bring food, I slipped past them as a dog... It's so much harder for them to sense animal emotions that they were confused... I was thin, very thin... thin enough to slip through the bars... I swam as a dog back to the mainland... I journeyed north and slipped into the Hogwarts grounds as a dog. I've been living in the forest ever since, except when I came to watch the Quidditch, of course. You fly as well as your father did, Harry..." Sirius looked at Harry, who did not look away. "Believe me. Believe me, Harry. I never betrayed James and Lily. I would have died before I betrayed them."

Harry was quite, his eyes thick with emotion and then after a moment he nodded.

"No!"

Pettigrew had fallen to his knees as though Harry's nod had been his own death sentence, and it had been— it was, because each of the adults, Pettigrew included —knew he wasn't leaving the shack alive. He shuffled forward on his knees, groveling, his hands clasped in front of him as though praying.

"Sirius — it's me... it's Peter... your friend... you wouldn't —" Sirius kicked out and Pettigrew recoiled.

"There's enough filth on my robes without you touching them," snarled Sirius.

"Remus!" Pettigrew squeaked, turning to Remus instead, writhing imploringly in front of him. "You don't believe this — wouldn't Sirius have told you they'd changed the plan?"

"Not if he thought I was the spy, Peter," said Remus. "I assume that's why you didn't tell me, Sirius?" he said casually over Pettigrew's head.

"Forgive me, Remus," said Sirius.

"Not at all, Padfoot, old friend," said Sirius , who was now rolling up his sleeves. "And will you, in turn, forgive me for believing you were the spy?"

"Of course," said Sirius, and the ghost of a grin flitted across his gaunt face. He, too, began rolling up his sleeves. His eyes flickered to Lucy who though didn't grin back at him, nodded. She too teased her wand. "Shall we kill him together?"

"Yes, I think so," said Lupin grimly.

"You wouldn't... you won't..." gasped Pettigrew. And he scrambled around to Ron and Meiri and Lucy.

"Ron… Meiri... l haven't I been a good friend... a good pet? You won't let them kill me, Ron, will you... you're on my side, aren't you?" But both Ron and Meiri had looked at Pettigrew with the utmost revulsion.

"I let you sleep in my bed!" Ron cried.

"Kind boy... kind master..." Pettigrew crawled toward Ron, only for Lucy to yank Pettigrew back by the scruff of his robes;

"You don't touch them," she growled and threw Pettigrew back to the floor. Pettigrew, whimpering nodded and looked at both ginger students.

"You won't let them do it... I was your rat... I was a good pet..."

"If you made a better rat than a human, it's not much to boast about, Peter," said Sirius harshly. Ron, going still paler with pain, shuffled closer to his cousin. Pettigrew turned on his knees, staggered forward, and seized the hem of Hermione's robes. Before Lucy could snatch him away once more Hermione pulled her robes out of Pettigrew's clutching hands and backed away against the wall, looking horrified.

"Sweet girl... clever girl... you — you won't let them... Help me..." But all Hermione did was look away. Pettigrew looked to Lucy, shaking, his watery eyes and quivering lip made Lucy's lip curled up into a snarl that did not deter his begging.

"Lucy, little Lucy Bill, he wouldn't want you to kill, to hurt someone, you're better then your family, he knows it!"

"That's where you're wrong Pettigrew, Bill Weasley trusts me to keep his family safe." _I'll kill you to keep them safe._

Pettigrew looked away from Lucy, whimpering and looked to Meiri who glared at him— loyalty was a Hufflepuff trademark and Pettigrew had done something unforgivable —so he knelt, trembling uncontrollably, and turned his head slowly toward Harry.

"Harry... Harry... you look just like your father... just like him..."

"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO HARRY?" roared Sirius. "HOW DARE YOU FACE HIM? HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT JAMES IN FRONT OF HIM?"

"Harry," whispered Pettigrew, shuffling toward him, hands outstretched. "Harry, James wouldn't have wanted me killed... James would have understood, Harry... he would have shown me mercy..."

Lucy, Sirius and Lupin strode forward, seized Pettigrew's shoulders and robes and threw him backward onto the floor. He sat there, twitching with terror, staring up at them.

"You sold Lily and James to Voldemort," said Sirius, who was shaking too. "Do you deny it?"

Pettigrew burst into tears. It was horrible to watch, like an oversized, balding baby, cowering on the floor.

"Sirius, Sirius, what could I have done? The Dark Lord... you have no idea... he has weapons you can't imagine... I was scared, Sirius, I was never brave like you and Remus and James. I never meant it to happen... He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named forced me —"

"DON'T LIE!" bellowed Black. "YOU'D BEEN PASSING INFORMATION TO HIM FOR A YEAR BEFORE LILY AND JAMES DIED! YOU WERE HIS SPY!"

"He — he was taking over everywhere!" gasped Pettigrew. "Wh-what was there to be gained by refusing him?"

"What was there to be gained by fighting the most evil wizard who has ever existed?" said Sirius, with a terrible fury in his face. "Only innocent lives, Peter!"

"You don't understand!" whined Pettigrew. "He would have killed me, Sirius!"

"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED!" roared Sirius. "DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!"

Sirius and Remus stood shoulder to shoulder, wands raised. Lucy stood on the other side of them, in front of Ron and Meiri and Hermione; Harry stood to the side, still off towards the door.

Lucy turned her head and looked at the three children behind her; "Meiri help Ron up and wait for us at the mouth of the tunnel." Meiri and Ron started to their feet, Hermione slowly unfroze from her spot against the wall and wrapped her arm around Ron's waist.

"You should have realized," said Remus quietly, "if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would. Good- bye, Peter."

"NO!" Harry yelled. He ran forward, placing himself in front Pettigrew, facing the wands. "You can't kill him," he said breathlessly. "You can't."

Sirius and Remus both looked staggered but Lucy however did not, her late night conversation with the boy coming to mind. No matter how much he had claimed to be ready to murder Sirius he wasn't.

"Harry, this piece of vermin is the reason you have no parents," Sirius snarled. "This cringing bit of filth would have seen you die too, without turning a hair. You heard him. His own stinking skin meant more to him than your whole family."

"I know," Harry panted. "We'll take him up to the castle. We'll hand him over to the Dementors... He can go to Azkaban... but don't kill him."

"Harry!" gasped Pettigrew, and he flung his arms around Harry's knees. "You — thank you — it's more than I deserve — thank you —"

"Get off me," Harry spat, throwing Pettigrew's hands off him in disgust. "I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it because — I don't reckon my dad would've wanted them to become killers — just for you."

No one moved or made a sound except Pettigrew, whose breath was coming in wheezes as he clutched his chest. Sirius and Remus were looking at each other. Then, with one movement, they lowered their wands. Lucy did not; everyone in the room stared at her.

"I want to ask Pettigrew something, privately," her eyes did not waver from the trembling man.

"Lucy—" Remus started. Lucy turned to him, moonlight continued to creep through the room, reminding her of why she had been lead to the shack in the first place.

"You should lock yourself in a different room, it's the full moon—" Remus looked startled at the reminder before rushing off out the door; Lucy heard the sound of another door slam shut. "—You—" she looked at Sirius, still unable to speak his name, "Take the kids and start walking, we'll be up shortly."

"Lucy?" Meiri said softly and Lucy smiled at the young girl.

"Everything will be okay." _Because I'll make it okay._ Sirius stared at Lucy, his eyes heartbroken, clearly he could remember where— who —he'd heard the unspoke half of phrase from. "Trust me."

"Come on," Sirius said towards the children, ushering them out, "Lucy's proved she can take care of herself."

A minute passed before all the kids and Sirius were gone, the door clicked shut and only when Lucy could no longer hear their feet creeping against the wooden floor did Lucy speak.

"Drop the sniveling coward act, no marked Death Eater is a little bitch." Almost Instantaneously Pettigrew seem to have dried his eyes and nose. "That's better. Any last words?"

"But Harry—"

"Is a child," Lucy corrected, "He doesn't understand what it would mean for you to go free because of the courts incompance or escape because my brother gave you an idea on how to. Like I said Pettigrew Bill Weasley expects me to be able to protect his family while he's abroad and you breathing is a liability."

Peter Pettigrew walking out of the shack meant him walking away with the knowledge of Arthur Weasleys shed, it meant him walking away knowing Charlie and Mia and herself had snuck an illegal dragon out of the country two years ago—it meant he knew every slightly less than above board thing the Weasley family had ever done in the past twelve years and while none of it was terribly illegal like the murder she was about to commit she wasn't about to let him— the tiny lump of a man who had already ruined her life —ruin the lives of the people she cared about.

She wouldn't allow that to happen.

"You wouldn't!" Pettigrew shrieked, "For all his talk Remus would hate you, I was his friend!"

"Perhaps, but I think you're overestimating your worth. Now last words? Any confessions?"

"Excuse me?"

"I want to hear you say it Pettigrew," said Lucy.

"Hear me say what? Confess to which crimes?" Pettigrew snapped, he glared at her.

"The big ones, murdering the Potters, blowing up the street, being a marked Death Eater, framing my brother—stuff like that."

"I confess. I was— am —a Death Eater, I killed the Potters and all those muggles on that street and framed your brother Sirius Black by hiding as a rat for twelve years. Me! I got one over on Sirius Black!" Pettigrew cried and lept to his feet. Anger rushed through Lucy.

"Avada Kedavra." A bright flash of green burned through the room as the jet of light shot from Lucy's wand and hit Pettigrew in the chest, killing him.

Pettigrew fell to the floor, as if he were a marionette who strings have been suddenly cut in the midst of a box top performance. His mouth hung open wide in shock, and Lucy felt no difference in her soul. She felt fine, no different then she had felt before casting the spell.

She felt fine.

Her hands shook violently as adrenaline flowed through her body, Lucy flicked her wand and the thin white sheet from the bed, though filled with more stitches then actual fabric, wrapped itself around Pettigrews body eerily similar to the way Egyptians would wrap their mummies.

"Wingardium Leviosa," Lucy muttered. Pettigrews body levitated a good foot off the ground and trailed after Lucy as she left the room— Remus screamed loudly from whatever room he had locked himself in, causing Lucy to nearly miss a step and fall down the stairs —and as she approached Sirius and the kids— though Sirius and Harry were already out of the tunnel Lucy could faintly hear the two of the talking about leaving the Dursleys and being a family; Figure out a way Dumbledore had told her —only Harry seemed to be the only disappointed one when Pettigrews body came into view,

"I thought we were taking him to Dumbledore! I thought murder darkened the soul!" Harry shouted at Lucy. Surprisingly it was Sirius, not Hermione or Meiri, who laid their hand on his shoulder. "You're good," Harry told her softly, defeated, and Lucy smiled wryly at the boy. _I'm not,_ she thought.

"Come on," she murdered turfing up to the castle, "Ron needs to get to the Hospital Wing."

Halfway up the Hill Sirius' gaunt hands caught Lucy's wrist.

"Thank you," said Sirius as Harry took Meiri's place at Ron's side.

"You're an idiot if you think I did any of this for you," she told him blandly.

"Lucy, I know—"

"Nothing, you know nothing now drop it before you're the next person I drop," Lucy growled threateningly. Sirius let go of her wrist and took two steps back before falling in step with Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Meiri ran to catch up with Lucy.

"Are you okay?" Meiri asked, "With-with everything." Lucy looked at the young girl and felt her lip start to curl; Meiri Prewett was kind, even to murderers.

"I'm fine," Lucy told her and Meiri looked at her oddly,

"Are you sure? I mean you found your ex helping you escaped convince brother only to find out that brother was innocent and your best friends little brothers rat had framed him for murder only to kill him myself, I don't think I'd be okay if that happened," Meiri said.

"I'm fine," Lucy said as the castle came into distance only for a cold breeze to wash over the six of them; a daunting chill shot up Lucy's spine and a terrible sadness settled in her stomach.

_Dementors._ Lucy grabbed hold of Meiri and brought the young girl closer to her, but still marched on up the hill, vigilant, only to stop as they came to the castle where three large floating cloaks were waiting. They turned to Lucy and the others, away from the large wooden doors and towards the group.

Lucy pushed Meiri behind her as Sirius did the same to the other children.

_Lucy thought of Bill Weasley being eleven years old and offering to be her new family, she thought of Molly Weasley and her first Weasley sweater, she thought of—_

The dementors swirled above the group, hurting them together until Sirius and Lucy had all the children between them, shielding them. A dementor seized Sirius by the front of his robes; Harry screamed.

"Expecto Patronum," _Lucy thought of Dora, only a few nights prior, promising never to leave her, the light at the end of her wand shined, Lucy thought of Claudia and how she had said she didn't blame her, how what had happened to her wasn't Lucy fault. She thought of people not thinking of her as Sirius Blacks sister anymore and of flying. She thought of her first game with the Tornadoes and how she felt when she felt Shebia curl up at her side at night._ The light grew, but a shield did not erupt from Lucy's wand, Hermione screamed and Lucy looked, her concentration broke and she saw the dementor that had Sirius begin to lower its hood, Lucy felt a dementor grab the back of her robes and her feet began to lift off the ground.

"Lucy!" Meiri Prewett clawed at her hand, Pettigrews body fell to the ground.

"Expecto Patronum!" Harry Potter shouted, his wand pointed at the dementor and a fully formed stag patronus appeared, the stag burst through Sirius and the dementor dropped Sirius to a heap of limbs on the ground as the stag drove it back, the stag turned and did the same to Lucy who landed on her knees, bruising them.

Lucy breathed deeply as Meiri helped her to her feet, Harry did the same to Sirius and Ron Weasley looked at his friend, wide eyed and surprised,

"Bloody hell mate."

…

Someone had screamed, Lucy, Sirius and Harry— And Pettigrews body behind them —had thrown one the door to the headmasters office and someone had screamed. McGongall stood from her seat, as did Snape who snarled at them; the Minister jumped to feet, off his chair and the three Aruras that had come with him— Moody, Kingsley and Dora —created a wall in front of Fudge.

"S-Sirius Black!" The minister gasped.

"Lucy what the fuck!" Dora demanded.

"Arrest him!" The minister cried, but no one moved.

"He's innocent," Lucy shrugged and moved aside so Pettigrews body, still wrapped in the sheet, could float further into the room before they could answer. "That would be the body of the recently deceased Peter Pettigrew."

"Recently deceased! Black killed Pettigrew twelve years ago!" Moody shouted.

"He faked his death," Sirius proclaimed as Harry told them he hadn't.

"Perhaps," Dumbledore stood, "Lady Black here could shed a little light on what had happened tonight?"

"She's his sister!" Fudge pointed through Kingsley, "She'll lie for him!"

"Minster I have known Madam Black for twelve years," McGongall said, still staring at Sirius liked he'd grown a second head, "Believe me when I say she would not lie for him."

"Lucy." Dumbledore nodded. Lucy nodded.

"I killed Peter Pettigrew," Lucy confessed, Sirius choked on his own spit while McGongall muttered something into his hand.

"Merlin's fucking tit," Dora muttered, rubbing her temple.

"I found Sirius with the kids— Harry, Ron, Meiri and Hermione —and he was raving that a rat was Peter Pettigrew, I was ready to stop him, Sirius, but Harry pointed out that if someone had the right to know the truth it was him. So we gave Sirius the rat which turned out to be Pettigrew who confessed of being a Death Eater, spying for Voldemort—" Fudge let out a wheezing gasp at the name, "—betraying the Potters, blowing up the muggle block and framing Sirius."

"How do we know that's the truth!" The monster demanded, his eyes glued to the body of Peter Pettigrew.

"Where was Lupin during all of this?" Snape demanded, Lucy, Sirius and Harry, And McGonagall all glared at him.

"Lupin? Who's Lupin?" The Minister demanded to know.

"Blacks old schoolyard friend, Defense Professor and werewolf."

"A werewolf, around children Dumbledore!" Fudge shouted outraged.

"He's perfectly safe!" Lucy defended Remus before she could stop herself, she took a step forward.

"Where was Mister Lupin?" McGongall asked sharply. Lucy was quiet for a moment.

"In the shack as well, it's where he's transformed."

"Why should we believe you?" Snape sneered and Lucy wondered who would really care if she killed him too, "You left out Lupin what else are you leaving out?"

"Check my memories than."

"Memories can be altered," Moody growled.

"Mine aren't. I'm sure our Headmaster, as wonderful and wise as himself has a pevensie," Lucy said and Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling darkly, nodded. He collected a vile off his desk and walked over to Lucy.

"If you may." Pleasantly Lucy held her wand up to her own head and pulled out a long glowing wisp of memory before she'd deposited it in the vile.

"Kingsley, Tonks watch the criminals," Fudge demanded as he and Moody, McGongall and Snape followed Dumbledore to the back of the large office. When he and the others were gone and out of view Dora turned to Lucy and seized her by her upper arms.

"What is wrong with you?" Dora shook,

"Tonks," Kingsley tried but a fierce, very Black glare quieted the older man.

"I didn't do anything wrong Dora," Lucy told her cousin.

"You killed Pettigrew? What if they throw you in Azkaban! What about Tahani and Theo? What will happen to them?"

"You have kids?" Sirius voiced.

"Shut up!" Both Dora and Lucy said. Sirius and Harry moves to the side of the room to sit, where Kingsley hovered; Sirius tried to chat only to be met with a disapproving glare.

"Look Dora," Lucy rested her hand on Dora's face, "I've thought of everything okay?" Lucy smiled, it was forced and uneasy, "Everything will be okay."

"You killed—"

"—A Death Eater whos alluded the law for twelve years. Guess they should toss Moody in with me shouldn't they?" Dora sighed.

"Mums going to be pissed if you get locked up, you still have to give Ophelia the talk." This time Lucy's smile was more genuine,

"It's so not fair that I have to give her the bloody talk, Domeda's the bloody medwitch. Sides, I think if I get locked up I'd be more scared of Penny breaking into my cell and kicking my arse."

"She will," Dora promised.

"He's free though," Lucy looked at Sirius and Harry over Dora's shoulder, "Harry Potter has a home now, a safe one."

"Theo and Tahani?"

"Will be taken care of should the worst possible outcome happen." _Should I receive a life sentence._

"So," Sirius drew Dora and Lucy's eyes to him as his conversation with Harry died, "You're Andy's kid? Nymphie?" He grinned. "I'm not sure if you remember but I used to babysit you."

"I was seven years old, not seven month," Dora said sarcastically, "I remember. It's good to see you're innocent Sirius."

"Thank you, How's your mum and dad?" He asked as though they were waiting for a Quidditch game to start and not the Minister to come back with their fates.

"Good, she's head medwitch of the maternity department and he's a news anchor now."

"What the tell did Ted do that had Andy turning him into a bloody anchor?" Harry chuckled as Dora pressed the balls of her palms into her eyes and sighed; Lucy had said the same thing when Dora had told her what her father did for a living.

"No, a news anchor is a reporter for muggles but on television."

"Pretty sure it's phelly-vision."

"It's not." Lucy heard the Minister and others from the back room and turned to them as Fudge stood in the archway of adjoins rooms looking between both Sirius and Lucy.

"Arrest him," Fudge said,

"What?" Sirius demanded as Harry jumped to his feet;

"I killed Peter Pettigrew!" Lucy proclaimed over both Sirius and Harry's voices, "He's innocent," the room quieted and looked at her, "Arresting him would be tantamount to sighing your own unemployment papers Minister."

Lucy looked at Fudge daringly. "You saw my memories of tonight, he's innocent."

It was quite, Lucy could practically hear the gears in Fudges head turning, "Fine. Arurora Tonks, arrest Lady Black for murder."

"But—but—" Lucy got on her knees and put her hands behind her back, as Sirius and Harry loudly pointed out that Pettigrew had been a Death Eater,

"Pettigrew sold my parents out to Voldemort, how is she getting arrested!" And Snape, Before McGongall threatened him just as loud, wondered if escaping Azkaban meant nothing!

"Come on Dora, no need to get in trouble over me," Lucy said quietly, slowly Dora enchanted cuffs onto Lucy's wrists and helped her to her feet.

"Lucretia Walburga Black you are hereby under arrest for murder do you have anything to say?"

"Nope."

* * *

**June 17, 1994**

Lucy had been placed in a ministry holding cell until the start of her trial, whenever that would be. It was a tiny stone room with only a bed, toilet and shower, and a copy of Hogwarts: a history.

"Rowan always did say she wanted me to read this," Lucy muttered as she crossed her legs on the uncomfortable cot and opened the large, hardcover book up, only to stop half way down the third paragraph when her cell door opened and Arthur Weasley walked in.

"Mr. Weasley!" Lucy blinked, she hadn't thought that they'd allow her visitors, "What are you doing here?" Arthur Weasley walked further into the cell and the door shut behind him. He sat on the bed with Lucy.

"Headmaster Dumbledore wrote to us last night and told us what had happened—Molly and I, we're not mad, Dumbledore, he told us Pettigrew had been—" Mr. Weasley cut himself off, "But why kill him?"

"Because before he left for Egypt Bill made me promise I'd look out for you guys and if Pettigrew escaped, if he got off he'd be able to tell the ministry all about you know what and about other things."

"Other things?" Lucy didn't respond but her bland face made Mr. Weasley fidget.

"But Azkaban Lucy, Tahani and Theo?"

"They go to you," Lucy said and Arthur Weasley blinked, "When I was seventeen I dragged Bill to Gringotts and I wrote out my will, should anything, Death or a lifetime imprisonment befall—" Lucy had always known, no matter how much she hated the fact, she was just like every other Black "—Me everything of mine, my title, my vault, my properties and children, are all left to the Weasley Family." Arthur Weasleys bottom lip fell open and quivered for a moment;

"Why?"

"Because when I was eleven years old you promised me you wouldn't let my mother near me, no matter what. You and Mrs. Weasley took me in and I'll never be able to repay you."

"Repay us? Lucy we did it because you were a child and you deserved it, you deserved to be safe and happy." Lucy smiled,

"Sometimes it didn't feel like that." Arthur Weasley frowned. He took her hand in his and squeezed,

"Molly and I, we'll be there at your trial, Bill too, we write him as soon as we got the Headmaster's letter, he'll be here." Lucy heart twisted at the thought of Bill Weasley seeing her in chains, of releasing he had befriended a Black all those years ago—that he had befriended a killer in the making at eleven.

"Thank you."

* * *

**June 20, 1994**

Lucius Malfoy had been the next and only person to visit her after Arthur Weasleys visit. He had flounced into her cell, beaming and laughing.

"Lucius, how wonderful to see you," Lucy said sarcastically, standing between the bed and toilet, her arms crossed over her chest and her hair wet from a shower.

"Lucretia!" He smiled, "How the mighty have fallen." Lucy bit back her smile; _What a fucking git_, she thought, _A predicable fucking git. It's like taking candy from a baby._

"Why are you here Lucius? Come to gloat?"

"No of course not, that would be unbecoming of myself, mudbloods gloat, I've just come to thank you."

"For what?"

"Making me a lord, upon your imprisonment I'll be Lord Malfoy, that brother of your was disowned leaving Cissy and myself to be the ones to inherit the Black Family fortune."

Lucy couldn't help but laugh, loudly. She tossed her head back and in a very Bellatrix Lestrange Manor cackled at a startled Lucius Malfoy who had taken a step back into the door.

"You're an idiot Lucius, if you think for one second I'd ever allow you to get your hands on my money." Lucius' pale face reddened. He stepped forward with one foot,

"I don't think it's up to you—"

"But it is!" Lucy started dramatically. "You think for one minute I'd allow you, someone who put his hands on my cousin, access to my inheritance? To my title? You're dumber than you look."

"In case you forgot upon imprisonments the ministry transfers funds to the next blood relative—"

"—If instructions haven't already been left," Lucy told him, "And they have. See on my seventeenth birthday I went to Gringotts bank and I wrote, instructing the Goblins that should I die, should I go to Azkaban for life they were to transfer everything I owned to the Weasley family, specifically leaving nothing for you."

Malfoy paled, And then he turned red.

"You bitch!" He cried.

"Have fun calling Arthur Weasley your Lord you slimy sack of shit, unless…" Lucy trailed off with a shark like grin and calculating look in her eyes.

"Unless what?" He growled.

"You buy my trail, ensure my freedom thus leaving me head of the Black family line, unless of course you do want to call Arthur Weasley Lord Weasley, and then more power to you."

"I won," Lucius seethed, "I had won—"

"You never won shit Malfoy get that straight, a Black, whether it be me, or Andromeda or Cissy or even my brother, we will always beat you because my parents were right, we are just better then some wizarding families." And he broke, Lucy could see it— she got a sick sort of joy from it —Lucius Malfoys shoulders sagged.

"My son," Malfoy said emptily, "I want letters of recommendation, for you to claim him as your cousin when presented with the opportunity, I want ties from him to you, Malfoys don't do second best."

"And for that my freedom?"

"Yes."

"Very well, tell my cousins I say hello."

* * *

**June 23, 1994**

Lucy saw, as Dora and Kingsley lead her into the court that the Wizenganot court was packed, Albus Dumbeldore sat in the highest seat, less then a meter above where the Minister sat. A woman in with tight brown curls and sharp glasses sat below him, a typewriter in hand.

Lucy looked towards the gallery, the one not packed with reporters and saw not only the Tonks family, Claudia Burke and Narcissa Malfoy sitting together, and Sirius and Remus in front of them next to her Quidditch team and, but the Weasleys, Molly and Arthur And Bill Weasley, all dressed up in their Sunday best.

Discreetly, when their eyes met Bill Weasley shot Lucy a thumbs up. Lucy smiled at Bill. Lucy had already known everything would be okay but to see Bill in the gallery— to see Bill —Lucy felt reassured. _Everything will be okay._

"All rise." Everyone in the court stood; Lucy never having sat down in the single chair in the middle of the room stayed standing.

"Docket number one-zero-thirty-seven, Lucretia Walburga Black v Ministry. Now presiding Chief Warlock Albus Wilfred Godric Brian Dumbledore and Minister Cornelius Jacob Fudge. All may sit."

Lucy sat in the chair and Kingsley held out a bright blue vile of what Lucy quickly recognized as veritaserum, the truth potion. Lucy took the vile and uncorked it, she looked at the cool blue before knocking it back and drinking the viles who contents before she handed it back to Kingsley.

"Thank you," he muttered.

"Welcome."

"For the record Lucretia Black had drank a freshly brewed vile of veritaserum and that each justice has viewed Lady Blacks memories of the night of the crime."

"State you name for the record," Dumbledore spoke to Lucy.

"Lucy Black."

"Your full name," Lucy grimaced;

"Lucretia Walburga Black." She heard Bill snort from the gallery. _Dick._

"And the crime you've been charged of."

"The murder of Peter Pettigrew." A wave of shock ran through the courtroom, the reports gasped and Dumbledore stood with his hands outstretched.

"Quite; please tell us of the events that lead up to the murder."

Lucy clenched her jaw for a moment; it had all started because she was taking Remus his wolfsbane potion but she couldn't— no matter how much he couldn't love her —out him.

"I was in Remus Lupins office—"

"Why?" A toad like woman asked, her voice high pitched.

"We were sleeping together," Lucy said, not exactly lying as they had been sleeping together— though not at that time —and another wave of shock ran through the courtroom; Sirius' loud_ What_ could be heard over the reporters gasps. Bill laughed loudly as Remus buried his head in his hands and Molly, Narcissa and Andromeda all turned to glare at the werewolf.

"You are aware, Lady Black," The toad like woman said very condescendingly, "That Remus Lupin is a werewolf."

"Oh," Lucy's shoulders sagged, "So it's common knowledge, okay, no so I was there to deliver his wolfsbane potion, Snape had seen me in the corridor and told me to deliver it to him, apparently the Headmaster had called him for a meeting."

"So you aren't sleeping with him? She did take the potion did she not?"

"No I did and we were, I mean I'm not currently sleeping with him but it definitely happened."

"Sweet fucking Merlin," Dora muttered into her palm. Kingsley looked amused.

"Did you know he was a werewolf?"

"Yup." The woman looked nearly ready to kneel over where she sat.

"Lady Black," Dumbledore called, "What lead up to the murder?"

"Right. So I'm delivering the potion to him and I saw the map—"

"What map?" Fudge asked.

"The one Sirius and James Potter their friends make while in school, it's of Hogwarts, it shows everyone, everywhere on school grounds and the shrieking shack. Honestly it's the most brilliant piece of magic I've ever seen."

"What—a map, of Hogwarts?" Fudge echoed, Lucy nodded.

"Yeah made it when they were fourteen—fifteen." Fudge seemed to be at a loss for words.

"So you saw the map…" Dumbledore prompted.

"And I saw that Sirius Black and Remus Lupin were in the shrieking shack with Harry Potter, Hermionie Granger and Ron Weasley so I rushed off towards the shack."

"You didn't alert anyone, call the dementors?" A man with a thick mustache wondered.

"No."

"Why?"

"I didn't want anyone stopping me."

"From what, stopping you from what?"

"Because a part of me wanted to kill him, to know that I'd be free of him and the monstrous things he'd done. Only in the shack he and Remus proved to me and the kids that the rat was actually an anigmus, that it was Peter Pettigrew." Sharp intakes of breath circled the courtroom.

"Can you explain in further detail what you mean by that," Amelia Bones asked.

"Peter Pettigrew faked his death, he cut off his finger and blew up the whole muggle block killing all thirteen muggles when Sirius confronted him about selling the Potters out to You-Know-Who, and then he lived as a rat for the next twelve years." Mummers spread through the gallery and all fifty judges.

"Why did you kill him?" A judge wondered and Lucy knew she had to be careful; to just say that Peter Pettigrew, Death Eater, was Scabbers the Rat, The Weasley family pet in front of all the reporters would be tantamount to dooming the family socially.

"Because he was a threat," Lucy said, "He was You-know-whos right hand man and he'd not only faked his death but he framed my brother for it, if Sirius could escape so could Pettigrew, so I killed him."

"So you did us a service then?" A judge wondered, not sarcastically but rather genuinely.

"You could say that," Lucy nodded.

"And what did you do afterwards?" Dumbledore asked,

"I brought the body and my brother back up to the castle and I confessed what I'd done."

"You never tried to hide what you did?"

"No, sir."

"Why?" Lucy blinked up at Dumbledore.

"Because I heard Sirius talking about taking custody of Harry because he's his godfather and it's his legal right and you told me to figure out a way to help abused kids. So I did."

"Are you saying Harry Potter is being abused?" A judge asked only for Dumbledore to hold his hand out.

"I think it's time for deliberations," Dumbledore said. Lucy glared up at him before taking a deep breath in and shutting her eyes. "Those who vote for guilty?"

Lucy opened her eyes. "Twenty," a voice rang out and Lucy beamed. _That means thirty vote for not guilty._

"Lucretia Black you are here by cleared of all charges," Dumbledore said and Lucy stood as Bill jumped over the gallery banister and picked her, and Dora who had been hugging her up in a tight hug.

He smelled of sandal wood, a fresh breeze and the shitty cologne he swore always worked when picking up people from bars.

"Billiam Weasley put us down!" Dora laughed, Bill did, though he quickly scooped Lucy back up; she wound her arms tightly around him, ignoring the flashing camera and screaming reporters.

"When I said watch out for the family I didn't think you'd have to murder Scabbers," Bills grin faulted as he pulled back.

"I promised nothing would happen to them, I wouldn't lie to you."

"No," Bill said tenderly, "You wouldn't." He let go of Lucy and looked behind him to where Remus stood with a cross looking Sirius.

"Your brothers a free man."

"Yeah."

"So his—uh—that was his baggage?"

"Yeah."

"Well at least you got him."

"He said he couldn't love me Bill," Lucy said softly and Bill laughed,

"He's been a wreck since I met him Lucy, maybe you should try again abd see what happens." Lucy looked at Bill and he pushed her towards Remus and Sirius with an encroaching smile. Lucy crossed the courtroom in several long strides and stood in front of Remus, ignoring her brother.

"Why are you here?" She asked him.

"Because—Because—" He floundered and Sirius, though rolling his eyes unhappily walked away.

"I love you Remus Lupin," Lucy said breathlessly.

"I'm a werewolf; you'll be ostracized."

"I admitted to sleeping with you in open court, they're going to burn me at the stake anyway."

"I'm older than you."

"And yet there have been nights where you tire me out," Lucy said Remus smiled, he stepped closer to Lucy.

"I'm poor and no one will give a job for a while," Remus said, "I can't treat you the way you should be."

"You treat me with respect and compassion." Lucy grabbed his hips. "I love you."

And then, he kissed her.

* * *

**a/n: And thats POA! Onto GOF! But before that quick shoutout to ****KitaandOpie, who leaves me the best essay length comments that I love and to everyone else who coemments, you guys are the driving force behind this story and you're what keeps me going.**


	13. July 1994 - chapter thirteen

**July 1, 1994**

Since her trail had ended and she had been set free, just as she had done as a child, Lucy hold herself up at the Weasley family home. Though unlike when she was a child she didn't have to kick Charlie out of his bed to sleep in the same room as Bill.

The pair; still under the cover of night, laid awake, Bill cramped on his childhood bed, and Lucy wanting to but unable to sleep. She wasn't guilty of murdering Pettigrew, nor did she regret it and the thoughts that consumed her mind had less to do with that rat and more so to do with the fact that earlier that day the Monster had publicly come out and declared Sirius Blacks record clean, himself acquitted of all crimes and the Ministry indebted to him.

She'd also━ in a series of letters that came in the order of the Minister, the commissioner and then her Coach ━been allowed back on the Tornadoes.

"Hey Bill?" Lucy wondered staring at the ceiling.

"Yeah?"

"You're awake right?" It was a stupid question but she asked it anyway. Maybe it was the collective eight hours of sleep since her trail.

"Sadly."

"Sirius is free, like really, really free."

"He is."

"I'm not a mass murderers sister anymore." She sat up, the shirt she'd stolen from Remus long ago slipped off her left side and down her arm and presented her bare shoulder for the darkness. She curled her legs in closer to her and raised an arm on her knee.

Bill, in his own bed, sat up too, he threw his legs over the side of the mattress.

"You aren't," Bill nodded from his bed.

"I still hate him thought. I shouldn't, he's free━ he's innocent, I'm the murderer ━but I do. I still think about him and I still hate him," Lucy said. She wanted to cry, for the ball in her throat to dissipate, but she couldn't, no tears would come and so she was left with a tightness when she breathed.

"You hated him for twelve years Lucy, that's not just going to go away. You thought he murdered people; your life was hell because of it, you're not going to forgive him over night."

"I feel like I'm a terrible person if I don't though, I mean, Andromeda's forgiven him," Lucy said truthfully. Apparently since she had been arrested Andromeda had opened her home to Sirius, allowing him to stay in her guest bedroom as he started to come to terms with his freedom.

"No one tried to drown her because of their relation," Bill said. He moved from his bed to Lucys and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, the same way she had always done to the other Weasley kids, and the same way Arthur and Molly had always done to him.

"So I'm not a terrible person for hating him?"

"No you're not."

"Alright." Lucy rested her head against Bills shoulder, "Hey Bill?"

"Yeah?"

"What did you think of Remus?"

"Before or after I hit him?" Lucy reeled back, away from Bill, surprised.

"What?"

"Penny wrote to me after what happened, and well, I planned on finding him when I came for the cup, he was there with Sirius when I got you Dora's mums house and I don't know, I just hit him. It was reactionary. He hurt you, and then he wasn't even trying to fight back━ "

"Fight back? Did you beat him or hit him?"

"I hit him, and well, I didn't pick him, but I picked him up, and I told him he was a right piece of shit and he told me he knows, and well, we spoke."

"About what?"

"You, dumbass. He says he really cares for you, and Merlin Lucy, I think the blokes in love with you," Bill smiled.

"You think so?" Hope swelled in her chest,

"Yeah I do."

"Are you okay with it? With me and him━ him being a werewolf?"

"Would you stop if I said no? I mean I'm cool with it, but what if?"

"Yeah I would," Bill looked at Lucy shocked, "I'd still love him but if you didn't like then it'd be a deal breaker. I fought with Dromeda for him, and I was ready to fight Penny but Bill, I won't fight you and I won't fight your family." Bill hugged her.

… …

Lucy and Bill, bleary eyes and messy haired, pushing each other shoulder and laughing at an old inside joke descended the burrows stairs, Bill pushing her elbow away from him and Lucy giggling at his impression of Aragog, the acromantula that had once guarded a vault, only for the pair of them to stop on the last stair because at the table, smiling at Mrs. Weasley was Remus Lupin, and across from him, with a bouncing leg, was Sirius Black.

Remus laughed at story Mrs. Weasley told him, with his fork half raised to his mouth and Sirius anxiously stirred the oatmeal in front of him.

"Remus," Lucy blinked, "S-Sirius, not that I'm not happy to see you, I'm always happy to see you Remus, but, uh, why are you here?" Lucy wondered. Sirius, still gaunt looking, but cleaner then he had been that night in the shack, and happier than he had been in the courtroom, turned to Lucy.

"I asked Moony to come, I, uh, I needed to speak with you."

"Oh, uh, alright?" Lucy grimace. Bill squeezed her shoulder, "We can talk in the living room if you'd like?" Sirius stood up and Bill, as Lucy moved towards the living room with Sirius━ her brother ━ in tow, took the spot he had been sitting in.

"So?" Lucy awkwardly crossed her arms over her chest, "What did you need to speak to be about?"

"Moony━ Remus ━well, not so Fudge, he gave me custody of Harry, something about bringing to write the Ministries wrongs," Sirius said, surprised Lucy's brows raised.

"Good, I'm glad, you broke out of Azkaban for Harry, you love him. He needs thats," Lucy said.

"You do too, or well, Moony says you care for him," Sirius said.

"I do."

"Look I get you spend half your life thinking I was a bad guy, I understand, and I'm only asking this because of Harry━"

"━Asking what Sirius?" Lucy cut him off. Sirius sat down on the edge of the couch and took a deep breath in, his sharp elbows rested on his bony knees.

"Can Harry and I live with you?" Sirius asked, Lucy blinked, "Moony told me you chose a house that was completely warded because of the Nott boys father, and it's Harry I'm asking for, Dumbledore, he tried to talk me out of it, told me Harry was being protected by blood magic or something, and I just━I can't let anything happen to him Lucy."

Lucy's legs folded as she fell against the large orange wingback chair.

"You want to live with me?" Lucy asked, Sirius nodded. Lucy's top teeth ran against her bottom lip, pulling at the skin.

_He wants to━ it's for Harry, you owe him your life━he saved Ginny's life! Saved the world three times!_ She thought to herself when a calmer, more clear thought passed through her mind, one that made her still;_ He's a boy, he deserves to be safe._

Lucy looked at Sirius and nodded, "How can I say no, Harry's a good kid." I'm doing this for him, was clear enough and Sirius' shoulders sagged.

"Thank you," he sighed. He smiled at her; it wasn't a large grin━ not like the ones he used to have on his face when they were younger ━but it wasn't forced either, it was a kind smile, one that made Lucy's stomach twist.

It was silent for a moment, and Lucy relished in it, her thoughts raced with that living with Sirius would mean when he opened his mouth.

"So," Sirius said this time grimacing, "You and Moony?" Lucy snorted.

"You really want to talk about me and your mate?"

"For a moment," Sirius replied.

"Yeah, me and Remus."

"You love him?" Sirius said, it was a question but the way Sirius had said it, the way he looked at her told Lucy he already knew.

"I do." Sirius nodded and then turned to the kitchen before turning back to Lucy.

"Don't hurt him," Sirius told her, "He's a great bloke but he's━he's never been free with his heart, so be good to him?" Lucy smiled mirthlessly at Sirius because over the past ten months it had been Remus who hurt her, who ripped out her heart and stepped on it, not the other way around and yet here he was giving her the shove talk.

"Yeah," Lucy said, "Of course, I love him." And Sirius smiled.

* * *

**July 3, 1994**

_The first time Bill had left for Egypt they had been seventeen, Lucy, who had been wearing her new tornadoes jersey and a pair of baggy sweatpants that had once belonged to Dora, stood in front of Bill Weasley, who was dressed in a light button down shirt that his mother had bought him new and a pair of recently hemmed pants he'd owned since forever._

_The pair of them stood in the middle of the Ministry corridor, workers who recongized Lucy as the sister of nitrous mass murder Sirius Black, and cousin to the crazed Bellatrix LeStrange gapped at her as they passed by the pair of recent Hogwarts graduates; Lucy toook to ducking her head, Bill glared at each and everyone of them._

_"You're actually leaving," Lucy whispered, her eyes filling with tears, "Merlin what am I going to do with myself?"_

_"Kick ass on the quidditch field and watch out for my siblings?" Bill offered._

_"No duh Weasley, I already promised I'd take care of them, but I mean who am I going to bother at two in the morning when I'm craving something but don't want to go to the kitchen alone?" Lucy wondered misty eyed._

_"Probably that fiancee of yours," Bill joked. Lucy grimace. Just before she and Bill had taken their NEWT's Felix Rosier, an old Prefect of hers, someone she had never been incredibly close too━ though never explicitly hated ━had seemingly been dragged out of the woodwork by his greying grandmother and an old magical betrothal contract that Lucy had never seen, but her father had apparently written with all his legal knowledge, had been shoved in her face as the old hag of a woman demanded that she marry her grandson or face the consequences which was━ as it was in all magical contracts ━death._

_"Do you think a life sentence would get me out of marrying him?" Lucy half joked. Apparently her cousin Andromeda running off with Ted had scared the family enough for her father to draw up an airtight betrothal contract that left her with no wiggle room. She would either marry Felix Rosier by the time she was twenty, or she would die._

_"I don't think so."_

_"Damn."_

_'If anything you can marry me, they can't make you marry him if you're already married can they?" BIll wondered._

_"No clue, but imagine my mother's face in the afterlife if I became the first polyandrous in the Black family," Lucy weezed at the thought._

_"Don't say that, she might just come back to life and strangle you for the very idea," Bill laughed. Lucy giggled into her hand,_

_"Mr. Weasley your portkey is ready," a man with thick octangle glasses and a bow tie said in the doorway leading to the hall, Bill turned toLucy, his bright smile dimming and his eyes turning sad._

_"I'll see you around right?"_

_"I'm coming for Christmas," Lucy promised._

Just as it had the last time it hurt to see him go; it was as if someone had reached into her chest and squeezed her heart, twisting it. Lucy and Bill Weasley stood in a dimly lit Ministry Corridor, just outside the room his portkey was being charmed by a Ministry official, his duffle bag full of clothing sat idly next to his feet.

"I'm going to miss you," she told him, her voice thick with emotion.

"Yeah," Bill murmured, he swung an arm around Lucy's waist and pulled her tightly against his chest, "I guess I'll be missing you too."

Lucy pinched the underside of his ribs causing the burly young man to let out a girlish yelp, "Don't be a dick Weasley."

"As long as you're not a bitch," he quipped. The conversation came to a lull and silence fell over them, Lucy tried to keep her face from crumpling in front of him, the weight of being left alone with Sirius━ the brother whose very presence still caused her gut to twist and anger to flood her veins ━and Remus━ the maybe boyfriend who admitted that thought he cared about her he wasn't quite sure if what he felt for her was love, which though hurt, was fair ━and the kids━ who she adored but was scared she'd fail and traumatized even more ━seemed to hit her full force.

"I have no idea what I'm going to do without you Bill," Lucy told him truthfully.

"You're going to find your footing and show everyone your amazing, like always," Bill told her and Lucy sighed.

"I'm serious Bill, I━ the kids ━what if I fuck up, what if I was never meant to be around kids, like not really, and-and Sirius, what if I snap and bludgeon him to death because he━ I don't know ━accidentally used the last of the conditioner or something?" Bills large hands clapped against Lucy's bony shoulders and he breathed deeply; Lucy followed suit.

After a few moments Bill smiled reassuringly down at Lucy, "Are you good now." Lucy shrugged and Bill kept his hands firmly on her shoulders.

"The kids━ Theo, Harry and Tahani ━they aren't six and you're not your mother okay? You care about them right?"

"Of course."

"You never hurt Meiri, or Ron or the others have you?" Lucy shook her head, "Then there'd be no reason why you would hurt them, you're a good person Lucy, a really good person," Bill stressed. "And as for Sirius━maybe, maybe try to amends with him?"

Almost scandalized Lucy looked up at Bill, "He's not your mother Lucy, he's not going to hurt you," he promised.

"He left me with her though," Lucy said, her brows knitted together and a thoughtful frown on her face. "Twice."

"But he's here now and I don't see him leaving," Bill told her. A witch, short and with long blonde hair swishing at her waist poked her head out of the portkey room, she looked at Lucy and blinked at her, her lips thinning out for a moment before her eyes flickered back to a leather wearing Bill Weasley.

"The portkey will be ready at any moment Mr. Weasley," she told him before releasing her head back into the room and shutting the door behind her.

Bill breathed loudly and looked at Lucy, "You're my best friend Lucy, I love you, you're like the sister I wish Charlie was, and basically what I'm saying is if you hold onto this anger inside of you you're going to get burned and I don't know what I'd do if I lost you, so take care of yourself, alright?"

Lucy grinned at Bill, a warm emotion spread through her chest as she hugged him to her tightly━ as tight as she could ━and whispered in his ear; "You're my best friend Bill, I have no idea what I'd do without you."

A moment later they untangled themselves from each other and Bill bent down to pick up his duffle bag.

"I'll see you in a month," Bill said. He had already scheduled time off for the Cup. "Don't murder anyone whilst I'm gone okay?" Bill asked, half turned to the door, smiling.

"No promises," Lucy joked and Bill shook his head before walking into the room and disappearing behind a closed door. Lucy stood there, in the empty hallway for a moment, her feet only starting to move when she headed the warping sound of the portkey being used.

Lucy had only just reached the elevator when a deep voice called out her title━ "Lady Black!" ━she turned and saw, dressed in bright yellow robes, a tall blonde man with a large potbelly and an even larger smile on his face.

"Mr. Bagman," Lucy smiled tensely, "How are you?" She wondered only because social edicate dictated it. Percy had told her that morning the man had spent the day following her him around, not doing the work he was supposed to, asking Percy about her.

_"I'm amazed with how Mr. Crouch hasn't cursed him yet," Percy had grumbled over his proage._

_"It's only cause Bagman has friends in higher places then Crouch," Lucy had said, "I'm surprised I haven't."_

"Wonderful, I'm glad you asked, how are you?" Bagman wondered, "I know with the whole trial thing, never doubted for a second you weren't innocent," Bagman said. Lucy opened her mouth to point out that the trail was more about if the murder of Peter Pettigrew was justifiable, not if she had done it, but Bagman spoke over her, just as loudly as he always did, "I heard━read in the papers ━you're with that bloke━the werewolf━Lupin, you know if you wanted a real animal in bed you could have always came to me," he winked and Lucys finger twitched to her wand.

Lucy had told Bill no promises when it came to murdering people and she was sure Barty Crouch Senior would help her hide the body if it meant Bagman was out of their lives, but if she didn't curse him it was only because the woman who had overseen Bills portkey walked up to the elevator too.

"The north elevators are out of service at the moment," she spoke to Lucy and Bagman, "Apparently Sir Yaxley bumped into Mayweather from Accidental Magic and Cataphoric and she blew the whole thing up." Both Lucy and Bagman blinked at the woman.

"She blew the whole lift up?" Lucy squaked.

"Yeah, apparently she was carrying a potion or something and then━" The woman made a 'kablooming' sound and emphasized it with her hands. "So if you want to leave you have to use the elevators on one of the other sides."

"Thanks for letting me know," Lucy said to the woman who nodded and then looked at Bagman critically,

"Why are on this floor Ludo, shouldn't you be on the next floor down? Surely with the Cup coming up you have work?" Bagman ruffled his shoulders, as if they were feathers and his tan cheeks pinkened.

"I do, but I heard Lady Black was in the building and I thought now was the time to ask what I've been needing to ask, Lysandra," Bagman snipped.

"Really cause it sounded like you were gossiping," the woman sniped.

"We weren't."

"I said you, she obviously wasn't." Ludo frowned at the woman and Lucy wondered if she could buy this woman a gold plated racing broom because Lucy had never seen anyone quite Bagman like this woman had. Not Crouch, nor Mr. Weasley, no one.

"Yes well, Lady Black come alone I'll walk you to the south side elevators."

"East is closer, I'm sure the Lady has much to do."

"I'll walk you to the East side elevators," Bagman fixed tightly, he shot the woman a tight look and Lucy smiled at her, Lucy pulled away from Bagman as he began to lead her away from the woman and stuck her hand out for the long haired woman to shake.

"It was wonderful meeting you," Lucy smiled, the woman's eyes sparkled.

"Pleasure Lady Black."

"Lucy," she corrected with a firm shake. When the hands disconnected Lucy allowed Bagman to lead her down the east corridor, prattling on about Irish National Team;

"Are you going to the Cup?" Bagman wondered.

"I was planning to," Lucy said; "Tahani, the girl I've━ er, taken in ━her whole room is filled with Quidditch play books, honestly the only person I've seen this obsessed is Birch right before a big game. She and Ginny━ Mr. Weasleys's youngest ━keep going over player stats and who they think will win." Lucy smiled fondly, the night before she had found Ginny and Tahani on the former bed, Quidditch play books and player stats scattered around them, Shebia on the pillow and debating on who was the better keeper, Connolly or Volkov.

Ludo eyed Lucy down his nose, "You're close with the Weasley's aren't you?"

"They're the family I wish I'd been born into." Ludo Bagman hummed in response.

"Arthur helped my brother out once, a minor scrape but he's a good man. And that boy of his Peter━"

"━Percy━"

"━Seems a bit uptight━"

"━He's a hard worker━"

"━But overall a good lad."

"He is," Lucy nodded. The elevator was at the end of the corridor.

"I'll be in the top box, perhaps I'll see you?" Ludo wondered.

"Oh I don't know, Mr. Weasley's allowing me to buy the kids tickets but he and Mrs. Weasley put a cap on how much I'm allowed to spend cause they knew I'd buy the stadium if I really wanted to spoil them and well, between the kids━ Weasley and mine ━Remus, Sirius and Mia and Charlie and Bill top box tickets don't seem very likely."

"What if I got you all top box tickets?" Ludo wondered and Lucy's mouth dropped.

"What?"

"I am in charge of tickets━Crouch is in charge of security and whatnot━so what if I got you all tickets."

"They'll be sixteen of us," Lucy said, Bagman waved her off. "If you're sure," Lucy said with narrowing eyes, wondering just what his price was━ surely it wasn't just to see her ━"Than thank you."

"Come on then we'll pop down to my office, I have some tickets there," Ludo said stepping into the lift, Lucy after him. He pressed the next floor below them and a moment later the elevator doors opened to a room full of chaos.

Magical paper airplanes; official notarized statements, shot over the head of Ministry employees, some of whom typed furiously on their typewriters, others who stood around a chalkboard drawing of what would be the stadium and campsite, others who shouted angrily at each other, and one anxious looking man who looked ready to tear his hair out as he huddled next to the water cooler.

"So this is the ex-player graveyard?" Lucy mused, her eyes lit up. Like every profession Quidditch too had their elephant graveyard; there's just so happened to be the Ministry of Magic's Department of Magical Games and Sport.

"Thinking of applying?" Ludo wondered, his eyes trailing over Lucy's shoulders hungerly.

_He's giving you top box tickets_, Lucy reminded herself,_ Don't hit him._ She coached.

"No, the Minister and the commissioner reinstated me to the Tornadoes after my trial and even if they didn't I'd probably go work for Mr. Weasley in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts division, apparently it's a lot less paperwork."

Ludo Bagman snorted and laughed, "True, my office is right this way━Barty!" Bagman cried jovially, Percy Weasley, behind a stack of papers in his arms stood behind a glaring Barty Crouch Senior.

"Bagman where━why is Lady Back here, you have to work."

"Oh well you see━ Barty ━" Lucy stepped up, not quite in front of a floundering Bagman but closer to Barty Crouch Senior,

"Sir Crouch it's lovely to see you again."

"Yes, as always Lady Black." He glared at her, she stared blankly at him.

"So you're the head of the Department?" Lucy mused, "I didn't this is where they moved you." She knew he had been moved, after his son had been outed as a Death Eater and his political career had been flushed down the drain they had to move him somewhere, "I wasn't aware you even liked Quidditch."

"And how would you be?" He asked stiffly.

_Because I used to eavesdrop on my brother and your son and he used to say you were as fun as paint drying, that your wand was so far up your ass it's what helped you get onto that high horse of yours each morning._

Lucy didn't say that of course, she didn't bring up his deceased son, but her eyes shined knowingly. Barty Crouch Senior stiffened.

"I hear you've been allowed back onto your team," Crouch said civilly. Lucy bobbed her head and Bagman took that as his chance to slip away towards his office.

"Yeah, a little too late to secure our spot in the Cup but hey, there's always '98, right?" Crouch glared. Lucy's tongue poked her left cheek and she stuffed her hands deeply into her pockets.

"So which brother are you hating me for at the moment?" Lucy wondered sarcastically. Ever since her trial, since Sirius's declared innocent Barty Crouch's name had been plastered in every article about the oldest Black; about how he hadn't given Sirius a trial and perhaps that's why he was glaring at her, the wizarding world was fickle and at the moment he was the one on the burning pyre.

But perhaps he stilled hated that Reggie, her Death Eater brother, had been his Death Eaters son, best friend.

Or maybe there was an entirely new reason he hated her.

Crouch's nose twitched angrily, "I haven't the slightest idea of what you're talking about Lady Black."

Lucy nodded and surveyed the room, she leaned closer to Crouch as Bagman slipped out of his office, "It wasn't Reggie you know, believe me or don't, but it wasn't Reggie who brought him into the fold." Crouch turned pale;

"Then who was it?" He demanded, his voice a low growl. Lucy looked at a mousy man who'd turned from his desk to looked at her and Crouch and Crouch turned to look at the man,

"My office," he said stiffly he spun on his heel as he lead Lucy to the office next to Bagmans, Percy with a smile continued past Lucy in the opposite direction━ secretly Bagman passed Lucy a small but thick envelope which she pocketed with a thankful nod ━and though he didn't slam the door Crouch sut it rather loudly.

"If it wasn't your brother who was it━how do you know who it was?" Lucy stood behind the leather chair that was adjacent to Crouch's desk as Crouch blocked the exit of the office, his hand still clinging to the handle.

"I used to listen in on Barty and Reggies conversations━to all the conversations that happened in my house ━my mother deemed be better to be not seen or heard from so I just used to listen in from next to doorways or the corners of the room and people wouldn't even notice I was there," Lucy told him, fingering the stitching of the chair. Sometimes I was a ghost in my own house, she just silently, Though I suppose it's better then a whipping post.

"Who was it?"

"Wilkes," Lucy said. "Reggie, he joined when he was fourteen," Lucy said with a painful expression on her face, "He wasn't marked until he was sixteen but he joined when he was fourteen. He didn't want to bring Barty in."

Crouch blinked, he looked as if someone had hit him over the head. "What?"

_Lucy stood outside the sitting room, her mother and brother sat inside, Christmas was two days away and all of London was covered in a blanket of thick white snow. Like always the inside of Grimmauld Place was freezing; and even though Lucy wore her thick wool slippers and thick wool socks her tose were still cold._

_"You're still friends with that Crouch boy," her mother crowed._

_"If I pulled away from Barty it would be suspicious mother."_

_"Then bring him in, I've meet the boy, I'd be proud to have him as a son instead of that sniveling blood traitor," she spat. Lucy blinked at the dark wallpaper; she knew her mother had meant Sirius. Lucy shifted her weight, carful of the creaking floorboards under her._

_Her brother had left her and Reggie, but she still loved him; missed him._

_"No," Reggie denied, "He hates mudbloods as much as any sane person but mother his father━"_

_"━Wouldn't have to know, besides even if he did Bartimus would send his heir to Azkaban; having Barty on your side, at your side, it would be safer for you."_

_"I'll let Barty come to us mother, but I won't be the one recruiting him."_

_"I do not understand your reluctance!"_

_"There are risks involved in this mother, Barty is my best friend, I rather win this war and tell him stories then have him be a story."_

"Reggie cared for Barty, from what I remember Barty was always more a brother to him then Sirius and well, Reggie knew the risks, death or Azkaban, and he didn't want Barty to take those." Crouch's hand fell off the door handle. "Reggie was protective of those he loved. There wasn't anything he wouldn't do for someone he cared about."

"And after?" Crouch said numnly, he wandered to his desk and fell into his seat, "After he joined?" Lucy sat down too, she smiled reminiscently.

"I remember that fight."

"Oh?"

_"You idiot!" Reggie roared, her mother was at her aunt and uncles leaving she and Regulus all alone, the boys were fifteen, Lucy seven and sitting on the ottomen by the fire while Regulus read Barty the riot act, "Do you understand the risks!" Barty opened his mouth to answer, "You don't! Barty the Dark Lord doesn't have any qualms about killing his own if they fail━Auror's have been ordered to kill on site! You can die" Lucy bit back a whimper at the thought of Barty━ funny, loving, sweet giving Barty Crouch who always lifted her over his head when he first saw her and swung her around until Reggie stepped in ━dying._

_"So could you!" Batty exploded, he jumped to his feet and Lucy's eyes widened. The thought of Reggie was preposterous, but chilling._

_"That's━it's not the same!"_

_"Why not?"_

_"Because you're my friend, my best friend!" Regulus said and Bartys shoulders sagged._

_"And you're mine you git." it was quite and Barty pulled Reggie into a tight, brotherly hug, "We do this together then."_

_"Win or lose, together."_

"Reggie was furious he had joined━he cursed Wilkes out, I'm sure that's when I learned my first swear word ━they were best friends, brothers." Sirius had had James Potter and Lucy had Bill and Regulus had Barty Crouch Jr.

"What did happen to your brother?" Lucy shrugged.

"He was killed for defecting, he saw the error in his ways and he tried to correct them."

"Do you think, could━"

"It was You-Know-Who," Lucy said before the older wizards mind could run wild. "He confirmed it to his circle himself." Crouch didn't bother to guess, to wonder, how she knew so, he just nodded.

"You knew my son well?"

"From what I spied I knew him well enough."

"Was he━did I raise? Was he always a monster?" Barty Crouch wondered helplessly and Lucy got where he was coming from. It was one thing to think his son had been pressured by his best friend to join, that he had lost himself to the darkness that he had been forced to surround himself with and that it was all Reggies fault, it was another to know he had willingly joined, that the darkness he flaunted had already been there.

_"They should be wiped out," Barty once said to her mother; the pair were on the topics of half breeds, centaurs, veela and more importantly werewolves._

_"The killing curse is to━to easy," Lucy once listened in as he and Reggie spoke one night, "Curico, bombarda, glassio, those are real spells."_

_"I'd slit her throat myself if it didn't mean staining my dress shirt with her mudblood."_

"Yes." Barty Crouch had always been a monster; just as Bellatrix always had been, and just as Rodolphus and Rabstan always had been. He had been kind to her, but he had been a monster too.

…

That night as Remus washed the dishes by hand, staring out into the darkness through the large window that was over the sink Lucy wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her head against his spine.

Sirius sat with the kids in the living room listening to them tell stories about how Harry had saved the school━ Harry always interjected when something outlandish was said or the others, Ron, Hermionie and Meriri were forgotten along the way ━and Lucy breathed.

"Reggie was a monster wasn't he?" Remus set the dish we had been washing down and turned around so he could look down at Lucy.

"What brought this on?" He wondered.

"I spoke with Crouch today, he asked me about his son. He thought Reggie was the one that recruited him."

"He wasn't?" Remus said surprised.

"It was Wilkes." Raphael Wilkes, a man who had been only a few years older then Sirius had died shortly after You-Know-Whos downfall. Lucy could only remember meeting once or twice, but even then the memory wasn't anything special, he was a man who could make Rodolphus and Bellatrix smile cruely, one Regulus had never left her alone with.

"He was your brother."

"A monster." Remus tipped her chin up,

"I'm a monster━"

"But you're not though," Lucy whispered, "You've never hurt anyone." Lucy stepped away from Remus and looked out the window. "Bellatrix used to torture the kittens and animals that she found in the garden, they were on our property and they were weaker then her so she could do what she wanted to them. Crabbe used to gloat about the women he's hurt. Regulus? He murdered people."

Remus ran his hands up her arms and massaged her shoulders, he dropped a kiss to the top of her head.

"Just because he's a bad person that doesn't mean you have to hate him. He protected you from your mother, cared for you when no one else did, you're allowed to love him."

"Am I?"

"Of course."

* * *

**July 4, 1994**

Eating breakfast with the children and Sirius and Remus was still a learning experience. Lucy, with her hair piled on top of her head and bare feet would sit at the chair in the middle of the table while Sirius, still gaunt and haunted looking, would take the one at the head of the table and read the paper, clearing his throat every so often whenever his eyes would still on a particular article. Theo, already dressed for the day would stand stiffly next to Remus as he would show Theo how to make whatever they were having for breakfast and Harry and Tahani would both wander down into the kitchen in the crumpled pajamas, rubbing their eyes and bickering about quidditch or a muggle fad neither Remus nor any of the purebloods in the house knew about.

Lucy cut another piece of the pancake Theo had made- one side was horribly burnt and the inside was still, somehow, somewhat raw -determined to either kill herself or finish the food when a loud- familiar -voice calling out Lucy's surname echoed through the house.

Lucy cringed and Theo jumped from his spot next to the stove the spatula clattered to the floor, Harry very nearly toppled from his chair only to wobble once Tahani caught him; Sirius and Remus both went for their wands only for Lucy to stand up and cup on hand next to her mouth.

"In the Kitchen Captain!" Lucy looked at Harry and Theo warmly, her eyes soft and her smile reassuring, when Brevis Birch, in sweatpants and his training jersey appeared in the kitchen doorway holding a crumpled copy of the Daily Prophet.

"I'm going to kill your bloody fucking boyfriend!" Birch snapped. Remus paled,

"What?" Remus asked in a strangled voice.

"Moony what the hell did you do?" Sirius yelped.

"Nothing!" Remus respond as he looked at Lucy in confirmation and she nodded.

"Not him, Lynch!" Birch snapped. Birch turned to Remus and nodded, "Morning."

"Adien Lynch?" Tahani turned to Harry, "Like the Seeker?" Harry shrugged and Theo looked at Remus who was busy looking at Lucy.

"Hi," the werewolf blinked when he looked away from Lucy, Birch drew the chair next to Lucy and stole away the pancake Theo had made before slamming down the prophet on the table. Lucy caught the panicked look in Harry's eye and looked sternly at Birch,

"Clam the fuck down, it's not even eight in the morning and I won't have you scaring the kids just because you're letting some flobber worm like Lynch get to you. What's it you always told me when dealing with him?"

"I don't care what I said before, read the interview Black!" Lucy sighed. "Page sixty-two." Lucy flipped open the newspaper and was greeted with the sight of Adien Lynch, smiling dazzlingly for the camera, his reddish hair tousled and his shirt just open enough to expose the red curls on his chest.

Adien Lynch winked at the camera and Lucy rolled her eyes. "Fucking loser," she said almost angerly.

"Why is Aiden Lynch her boyfriend? I thought Professor Lupin was," Tahani wondered, no one answered her.

Lucy Black wasn't quite sure whether or not she actually hated Adien Lynch- she did have a sexual relationship with him for nearly two years -but there was just something about the sight of him that made her want to punch him in the face.

Lucy skimmed the article for what made Birch so angry only to find it in the middle of the page, **And so readers**, Reetia Skeeter had written,** I asked the world renowned Seeker who he would thank for his chance at the World Cup and his reply was nothing more than charming and hilarious. "My best friend Scott for one, he's the one who pushed me to try out for the house team back at school, if it weren't for him I wouldn't have found my love for the sport. My team too, a Seeker can only go so far by themselves and lastly Sirius Black, if he hadn't escaped when he had and gotten his sister benched I would'n't have won that last match so easily if he hadn't."**

Lucy set the paper down with a stiff jaw and fire in her eyes.

"I'm going to murder him," Lucy seethed. Tahani choked on her milk.

"Are you allowed to say that anymore?" Sirius wondered, "I mean, you did kill someone." Lucy ignored him and turned to Birch,

"The kids and I have tickets to the Cup, when we go I'm going to kick his ass."

"I'll hire a photographer," Birch said evenly. Lucy breathed in heavily.

"I can't even believe him, saying that! He caught the snitch cause Ethel fucking sucks not just cause I was benched; and if I hadn't been he would have never caught it in the first place!" Sirius looked at Lucy from over the syrup, "If we had a capable Seeker while I was gone we would have won because he's just not that good. Oh Adien Lynch-" Lucy mocked in a high pitched voice, "-Can't find a bloody snitch and the only reason people care about him is because no matter how many hits to the face he receives he's still bloody gorgeous!"

"You think Adien Lynch is gorgeous?" Remus wondered humorously from his spot by the stove. Theo had gone back to making pancakes and Remus leaned against the counter.

"Yeah but I shagged you last night so I think we all know who would win if it were up to me," Lucy flirted. The children and Sirius cringed; Gross, Tahani hissed as Sirius pretend to wretch from his seat.

"I did not come here to hear that," Birch muttered before finishing the pancake.

* * *

**July 10, 1994**

Lucy, sitting on the couch with her head in Remus's lap as he ran his fingers through her hair as she read stopped short when she saw Harry and Theo standing awkwardly in the mouth of the hallway.

"Hey?" Lucy smiled, "What's going on?"

"Well Harry and I━" Theo said, his hands in the pockets of his pants and his weight constantly shifting,

"━If it was okay with you, we can go by ourselves, we don't want to trouble you━" Harry added,

"━Were wondering if you could take us to London," Theo said, "Meiri's birthday is soon, and we have our own money but we both want to get her presents━"

"━Sure," Lucy cut Theos explanation off, an easy smile on her face grew as both boys smiled back.

"Thanks!" Harry grinned,

"Let me just get dressed," Lucy looked at Remus, "Are you coming with us?"

"Sure," Remus replied; he stood up with Lucy, who tucked the book she had been reading under her arm. The pair made their way towards their room━ though Remus constantly referred to it as Lucy's room whenever Sirius called it theirs but Lucy would quietly note how not only did he keep two drawers full of clothing in one of the dressers but he also hadn't been home since they had picked up the kids ━when the ran into the ex-convict and the tiny soon to be second year Ravenclaw, giggling.

"What are you two up too?" Lucy asked, her arms crossed and a mothering look on her face.

"Oh well you see," Tahani said, her face darkening, "The twins may have sort of left a bag here yesterday after they said Cotton was better then Lamont, which isn't true so Sirius may have helped me with something," Tahani muttered.

"And that something would be?" Lucy raised her left eyebrow

"...Filling the bag with crickets." Lucy blinked and then sighed,

"Go get dressed, obviously you two would burn the house down if you were left alone together, we're going to London to pick out birthday gifts for Meiri."

"Awesome!" Tahani cheered before bouncing down the hall to her room.

"Which one is Meiri again?"

"Fabians girl," Remus told Sirius, "The one that was there that night in the shack."

"The Hufflepuff," Sirius said. "Alright, give me a few minutes."

"As long as you don't take forever like this one," Lucy joked, nuging Remus in ribs.

"Excuse me," the werewolf laughed, wrapping his arms around Lucy's waist and nuzzling against her neck, causing her to giggle.

"Merlin you two are gross━you do remember that is my little sister Moony?" Sirius asked, his face turned away in disgust.

"And you do remember whose house this is right?" Lucy shot back.

"Still gross," Sirius said as he rolled his eyes and walked away, down the hallway towards his room.

"You're gross," Lucy muttered chislishly; Remus snorted loudly behind her.

…

Muggle London was different from Diagon Alley, for one there were more people, second off, the stalls on the sidewalk didn't sell potions that probably turned you green if you took them at the wrong time, or dragons liver that probably killed you if you actually ate it, but cheap hats and tourist memorabilia.

Dressed like muggles; Lucy in a plaid mini skirt and cropped t shirt, Remus in muggle jean trousers and a button up, and Sirius in the leather Jacket the ministry had given back to him, and his biker boots, the three adults, and the children walked through the crowds, window shopping as they did so.

"What does Prewetts girl like?" Sirius asked Theo and Harry.

"Creatures," the pair answered together, a small smile on both their faces.

"Oh?"

"She swears she's going to be the next Newt Scamander," Harry told his godfather.

"She will be," Theo said and Harry nodded,

"I didn't say she wasn't going to be, honestly though she's more like Hagrid isn't she? She thought a dragon was a good pet."

"That's so Charlie's influence," Lucy said, her arm swung around Tahanis shoulders as a man leered at her, Lucy glared at him and she pulled the young girl closer to her before moving her so she was sandwiched between herself and Remus.

"Charlie is…?" Sirius wondered.

"Bills younger brother, he's the second oldest. He graduated with Dora, he and Mia work on a dragon reserve in Romania.

"Who is Mia exactly?" Thani wondered, "Like I know who she is but is she Charlie's girlfriend or fiancee or what cause Ginny doesn't seem to know. She swears they act like a married couple and they live together but she knows Mrs. Weasley would kill Charlie if they just eloped." Harry and Theo turned to look at Lucy as she weezed.

"Merlin imagine!" Lucy laughed at the thought; Mrs. Weasley would have murdered Charlie if he and Mia had eloped. "No Mia's just Charlie's Girlfriend," Lucy said easily. She ran her nails against her scalp, her fingers tangling in her hair.

"What about in here?" Lucy pointed a store front; it was a music store; vinyl records hung on the back wall and Basket Case by the muggle band Green Day played loudly into the street.

"Think they have The Kinks?" Sirius wondered as they all entered the shop,

"Everyone has The KInks Sirius they're a good band," Lucy told him.

"Hey," a girl with bright pink hair and metal piercings nods to the group. Her eyes work up and down Sirius and then her eyebrows raise at Theo, who wore beige dress pants and a short sleeve button up. Lucy rested her hands on Theos shoulders.

"Hey," Lucy nodded back. She and Theo make their way over to the vinyl records while Sirius and Remus start going back and forth on who was better The Kinks or Shame 69.

Lucy fingers the vinyls that start with A while Then starts from the opposite end of the table at Z; Tahani, as Harry jumps into to Sirius and Remus' conversation, wondering who both bands were, starts to look at middle of the alphabet only to pull out two records; one by the band the Patels and another by the band Oasis.

"Found my gift," Tahani said and Lucy and Theo look at her, "Meiri likes indie and pop and the last time she listened to my music she thought Supersonic was a good song and she loves the Patels so━" Tahani shrugged.

"Alright," Lucy said, she handed Tahani her wallet, "Go pay for it then, also if you want anything for yourself━"

"I'm good," Tahani said with a sweet smile. Theo and Lucy wandered back over to Remus who absentmindedly slipped and arm around Lucy's waist as she leaned into him, and the six of them self with tahani carrying the records in a plastic bag.

Four hours later Sirius had gotten Meiri a viewmaster, a muggle toy that you held up to your eyes and clicked the tab on the end and viewed a slideshow of different images; he had gotten her a dozen different reels, all of them creatures, some being dinosaurs and other being fish and birds. Lucy had gotten her a handful of brightly striped shirts, a plaid dress and a jean jacket while Remus had gotten her a one book on dinosaurs and a screenplay named A Streetcar Named Desire.

"Hey Lucy?" Theo asked as they continued to walk down the street, he and Harry being the only two without presents.

"Yeah Theo?"

"I━Meiri's my friend, my best friend," he said, "Have you ever felt like you had to get Ron's older brother an amazing present, like Meiri, she'll love anything I get her, she always says that but do you ever feel like if you don't they won't want you around anymore if you don't?" He wondered. Harry made a sound of agreement and Lucy stopped walking, and gently held onto Theos elbow, she Looked at Sirius and Remus,

"I see a dinner down the street, how about you two and Tahani grab us a place and we'll be right there okay?" Remus nodded and with a kiss to the cheek he and Sirius, laughing at a silly pun Tahani had made walked down the rose to the dinner.

Lucy tuned to Harry and Theo,

"The first present I got Bill was a racing broom, newest on the market. He got me a picture of the two of us and I loved that more than I could ever love any broom because it showed me he cared. That's what the Weasleys are about, love and showing each other that they care, and sometimes maybe caring isn't getting the perfect present but getting something they'll just like and spending all day having spent all day searching for it," she told the boys.

"I gu━Merlin," Theo's eyes widened,

"What?"

"Behind you." Lucy turned around and saw that the store behind her was not just a pet store but a muggle pet store that kept what was a brown and white striped jarvey━ a magical ferret that screamed ━in the front window.

Jarveys were magical creatures that resembled overgrown ferrets that screamed, they, though were capable of some forms of human speech only ever said rude statements and were more often than not violent creatures.

"Oh Merlin," Lucy gasped, she shuffled both boys into the store, the jarveys screaming made her stiffen as she opened the door and the pet store worker who wore earmuffs looked at them.

"Hi!" He shouted,

"Hi!" Lucy shouted back, "How much for the screaming ferret?" She wondered, the worker's face lit up with joy,

"You want it" He yelled and Lucy nodded seriously.

"Free, it's free, take it" The worker said coming around the counter and grabbing what was a large cage, he proceeded to take the jarvey from the glass case it had been in━ Lucy held her breath as the worker picked the jarvey, expecting it to maul the workers hand, only for the Jarvey not to bite the pet store workers hand or scratch at his skin and instead just limply hang in the workers hand, screaming ━as it was placed into the cage. He handed the cage to Lucy and waved her and the boy off, quickly shooing them out of the store.

Muggles on the street turned to Lucy and the jarvey, which was, for all they knew, just a screaming ferret, Lucy stepping over to the side of the street moved the boys to shield her before she pulled out her wand.

"Silencio," she casted at the jarvey who quickly quieted. The Jarvey looked up at Lucy, Harry and Theo with large, innocent eyes.

"Can I give Meiri the Jarvey?" Theo wondered looking down at the creature who silently smiled up at them.

"It doesn't seem violent," Harry noted.

"We'll have Remus take a look at it when we get to the dinner, if he deems it safe, sure." Lucy said, she passed the cage to Theo who held the jarvey up and looked at it;

"I might finally get her the better present this year." Harry laughed, as did Lucy because even as the times changed and no matter how different they were from one another Slytherins were always the same, competitive.

* * *

**July 15, 1994**

Lucy and the others, with the Jarvey cage in hand and messily wrapped presents in another had flooed to the Borrow around noon on Meiri Prewetts birthday, the sun, high above the trees and hills that separate the magical home and the muggle village, beat hotly onto the gaggle of wizards and witches as Fred and George lead Meiri out of the magical home, one of their hands covering each of her eyes.

While Ginny, Tahani and Luna watched from their spot on the grass, and Ron and Hermione looked on from the side, weary looking at creature, and Harry, struggling to large, wrapped, box filled with ferret toys

"Alright," Theo held the cage up, "Ready for your present?"

"Yes!" Meiri practically vibrated, Lucy chuckled from her spot next to Mr. Weasley. Dramatically Fred and George lifted their hands up and Meiri was left looking at the Jarvey, her mouth opening and closing as she shook.

"Merlin," Sirius breathed, "She's just like Marlene isn't she?" He asked Remus; Molly who had overheard bit her lip.

"You━that's a━You have got to be the best friend ever!" Meiri shrieked as she took three steps forward and gently got the cage from Theo. She beamed brightly at Theo, who Lucy could tell, under the English sun, was blushing.

Meiri held the cage up to her face and smiled closed lips, careful not to show any teeth, and looked at the creature, "Hi," she spoke, her voice high and light, as if she were talking to a baby, "I'm your mummy." The jarvey, blinked once, then twice, then it screamed and while Ron and Hemione cringed, and Fred turned to George and muttered something about how the jarvey sounded something akin to Percy in the shower, Meiri grinned proudly. She then promptly, for only a few seconds, screamed back with the jarvey who stopped.

Lucy couldn't help but laugh at the lost look on the jarveys face.

"Harry was right," Remus mused fondly as Meiri let the creature out of the cage and sat it on her shoulder, "She is just like Hagrid."

"Gideon," Mrs. Weasley said sadly, looking at her niece as the kids converged onto her and the javrey, Meiris shoulder pressed up against Theo's, "She's just like Gideon was at her age. Creatures this and creatures that━Merlin," Mrs. Weasley's eyes watered as her husband took her into his arms, "He once tried to keep a niffler as a pet, you know, before our mum found out about it."

Remus snorted, Sirius turned to him, "Didn't Prewett once walk into━ er ━you-know-what with a cokatrice on his shoulder and a sack of doxys in one hand." Remus's eyes sparked to life as Mrs. Weasley leaned forward out of Mr.s Weasleys arms,

"Better then the time Fenwick dared him to ride the Blast-ended Skrewt he found."

"I'm sorry Mrs. Weasleys brother did what?" Lucy blinked, smiling, she couldn't wait to tell Bill and Charlie the story when they came for the cup.

"Yeah," Remus nodded, smiling at the fond memory. "Do you want to tell it Padfoot?" Sirius grinned.

"Okay, so we'd just raided a safe house and it was filled with these creatures and this skrewt has to be the side of a small horse and Benjy Fenwick goes _'Prewett betcha can't ride this thing'_, and the house has been cleared so everyone who isn't us is gone and we're waiting on Moody, and Jamie━" Sirius' smile turned sad, "━ He tells Gi he'll give him four galleons if he dose and Gid goes_ 'With a price like that how can I not'_ and opens up the cage━ "

"Oh my Merlin," Mrs. Weasley said and Molly couldn't tell if he was an exasperated Oh my Merlin or a happy one behind all the emotion in her voice,

"━Only for Moody and Marlene and Frank show up and Marlene blows the thing up because she thought it was going to attack Gideon."

"I'm sure Marley loved hearing how it was Gideon who let it out of the cage," Mr. Weasley laughed.

"She beat the shit out of him." Lucy and Mrs. and Mr. Weasley all started laughing.

"Sounds like he would have tried to get her a dragon instead of an owl when she got her letter," Lucy said from behind her jovial tears, Mrs. Weasley, crying too━ from either, or, both at the memory of her younger brother or the antics he got up too ━ choked out a laugh at that.

"Probably." The jarvey screamed once more; it sat pleasantly on Meiri's head.

…

The adults, as the kids had run down to the stream, sat in at the long kitchen table, drinking what Lucy had made and called a Cherry Lodka━ which was just a recipe Dora had shown her that replaced the water in cherry lemonade with vodka ━reminiscing about old times.

Weezer, the jarvey, sat on Remus' lap asleep, tuckered out from having been played with more in the last two hours then he probably ever had been in his whole life.

"Oh!" Lucy gasped, she pointed at the ceiling and wagged her finger, "There was this one time Bill, Charlie, Dora and I, Mia and Penny are there too but they're on the grass tanning or really it's just the four of us, and they're not paying attention to Dora or Charlie trying to show off, so Bill suggests Charlie should save me to wow Mia," she laughed over the rim of her glass.

_They were sixteen and fourteen respectively, Lucy wore one of Bills shirts over her bathing suit, covering her back, shoulders and collarbone, hiding her scars._

_"Okay buy how is Charlie supposed to save me?" Lucy looked at Bill dryly, "What is supposed to save me from?" She crossed her arms over her chest. "A gnome?"_

_"A-A-A kappa?" Bill suggested._

_"Those are found in japan Bill, not Devon," Charlie pointed out._

_"Yeah but we have Dora," Bill said and Dora's eyes brightened with a mischievous light. She turned to Lucy who groaned,_

_"Why do I have to saved?"_

_"Because girls like seeing guys gave a damsel?" Bill guessed and Lucy frowned at her best friend._

_"I have several things to say about that Weasley and none of them are nice." Just the morning the twins had been teasing Percy and Mrs. Weasley had told them if they didn't have anything nice to say not to say anything at all._

_"Yeah well you know what mum says," Bill laughed as Dora, behind Bill changed her appearance. No longer did she have hair or skin, but instead red scales, her fingers were webbed and a scaly tale sprouted from the water. Her nose elongated into a snout and a water filled depression was created a top her head._

_"Merlin you look freaky," Lucy told Dora,_

_"I vant your blood!" Dora said in a fake, transylvanian accent. Bill snickered into the palm of his hand and Charlie turned to his brother,_

_"So how are we doing this?" He wondered._

_"Lucy get behind Charlie," the dark haired witch did so. "When I get to the bank Dora lunge at Lucy, Charlie, you catch her."_

_"For the record this is a dumb plan," Lucy said._

_"Better then charming Winger bald," Bill shot back. Lucy stuck her tongue out at Bill who mirrored the action before swimming off to the riverbank. Once he was seated on the checkered blanket next to Penny and Mia, both of whom were outstretched and glistening in baby oil Dora, roaring lunged at Charlie who grappled with her, pushing at her forearms as Lucy yelled._

_"Help!" Lucy cried over theatrically, and Mia,as she always did, jumped into action. With her wand on the blanket forgotten the fourteen year old girl jumped into the water and pounced at the Kappa-like Dora, grabbing her in a headlock,_

_"Merlin Mia let me go!" Dora floundered, flailing her arms._

"Did it work?" Sirius wondered.

"Merlin no, Mia kicked all our arses and Penny yelled at her for not thinking with her head and then at Bill for coming up with a plan that put Dora in danger," Lucy replied. Remus laughed at that.

"I remember," Mr. Weasley said pointing at Lucy, "When you used to refuse to get in the water, Bill and Charlie and the others would go swimming and you just used to sit there."

"What do you mean she used to refuse to go in the water?" Sirius turned to Lucy, "You loved the water when you were a kid." Lucy shifted, pink in the face,

"Well with her scars it's━"

"━ What scars?" Sirius looked at Lucy, cutting of Mr. Weasley.

"He doesn't know?" Mrs. Weasley blinked.

"I don't know what?"

"It never really came up," Lucy said uncomfortably.

"What scars? What do you have scars?" Remus, under the table grasped Lucy's hand in his, squeezing it reassuringly.

"Uh, um━well, mother, after you left was pretty adimate about there being no more blood-traitors." Lucy looked at the table.

"She never hit us," Sirius said, his knuckles white around his glass.

"You," Lucy corrected, "She never hit you or Reggie, but after you left━after Reggie died she lost it." Lucy fingered the spot of fabric under the collar of her tee-shirt.

"She lost it?" Lucy shrugged, her jaw clenched tightly at his tone of voice.

"She used to forget Reggie was dead, and whenever I'd remind her━" She shuttered.

"Then why did you keep reminding her?" He asked sharply.

"Sirius," Remus hissed.

"It's not like I wanted to get beaten but she'd hurt me anyway until I told her!" Lucy shot.

"She didn't hit us," Sirius said again.

"You, she didn't hit you, but then you ran away with no regard to what would happen to me or Reggie!"

"Because━!"

"Because what? Walburga Black was a heartless, evil bitch who you didn't think twice about leaving me and Reggie with!" Lucy stood from her seat, Sirius followed suit and Mrs. Weasley looked torn between hexing Sirius and yelling at the both of them to sit down.

"I offered Reg a place, told him mum and pop would have welcomed him too, he chose to stay with her!" Ice flooded Lucy veins.

_So me, it was just me he was ready to leave behind._ She thought, _Reggie stayed, he protected me._

"Well thank fucking Merlin for that then," Lucy snarled darkly, "She made me kneel on rice for hours the day after you left, wonder what she would have done if Reggie was as much a selfish bastard as you." Lucy knew, so did━ from the way Mr. Weasley's shoulders stiffened, and Remus' hands curled around his knees, and Mrs. Weasley looked away ━ did everyone else at the table.

_She would have drowned me in the tub._

"I'm going to check on the kids," Lucy snapped to no one in particular. She didn't slam the back door behind her, nor did she cry on the way to the river, but for the countless time since he had died, she wished Regulus was the brother who had survived the war.

…

When she and the kids arrived back at the burrow, all of them damp, and dinner set upon the table, Sirius was gone and Remus' right hand was bandaged.

* * *

**July 20, 1994**

They hadn't spoken since Meiri's birthday and when Sirius sat down on the grass next to Lucy she ignored him. Lucy continued to stare up at the Leo constellation, at the star Regulus. Her heart hurt; her chest burned as she breathed and her eyes stung with unshed tears.

"He'd be thirty one today," Sirius said. He looked up at the sky, at the same star Lucy was looking at and breathed.

"He'd probably have kids," Lucy replied, never tearing her eyes away from the night sky, "He wanted three."

"He'd probably drop one of them━he really did drop you as a baby," Sirius said.

"Really?" Sirius made a nose of agreement in the back of his throat, Lucy's knees curled to her chest.

"You don't have to believe mother hit me, I don't care," Lucy said, "But she did and Reggie, he protected me." It was quiet for a moment. "He used to let me climb into bed with him, after you left, whenever I'd have a nightmare he'd let me sleep with him, even though I used to kick━"

"━I remember━" Sirius smiled,

"━He used to sleep on the floor, but he'd hold my hand over the edge of the bed, and Merlin he used to complain about his shoulder the next day but he always let me back in when I was scared."

"He loved you," Sirius told her. Lucy blinked and the tears in her eyes started to run down her face.

"Mother took fathers belt one day, Reggie had been out with Barty and Claudia and when he came home━I don't think anyone has ever yelled at mother and lived."

"He yelled at her?" Sirius asked in astonishment.

_Lucy, almost seven, laid flat against the wood flooring, her back burned and the world around her spun, she turned her head even though it hurt to move and expected to see her mother standing over her once more, her father's belt in her hand but she didn't. The person standing over her was Regulus, panicked and frightened and with blazing eyes._

_Regulus kneeled down next to her._

_"Reggie," she whimpered,_

_"Hey, it's going to be okay, alright, because I'll make it okay," Regulus said with a shrill, hysterical note in his voice. She turned and looked up at their mother._

_"This is the last time mother," he started, his voice dangerous._

"It was right after father died, I━ Merlin what did I say? I don't even remember ━but anyway, he came home and I was this bloody mess on the floor and all I remember is waking up to see him standing over me, yelling at her, telling he he wouldn't let this go on, that the next time she touched me he'd take me and go live with Ara and Rab and if it came down to it he'd renounce the house. He'd take Claudia's name and that was the last time she hit me before he died."

"He was always good at that wasn't he?" Sirius mused, "Bluffing. I don't think I ever won a game of cards against him."

_The pair, Lucy and Regulus sat on the sandy beach near their uncle's house, cards in front of them and in their hands and Lucy beamed at Regulus, who looked at his cards stony face. She was going to win this round, she had an amazing hand. She didn't; Regulus' was better._

"He taught me," Lucy chuckled, she looked back up at the star, "After you left and right before Alphard died, one afternoon he was teaching me how to fly a broom properly and he pulled out a deck of cards and told me if I was going to be a real Black I needed to learn how to cheat because there was no way Alphard was going to let me win."

"That man was ruthless, fun at parties but always took our halloween candy." Lucy laughed. "Pretty sure Reggie was the only one to ever beat him at cards."

"He was good," Lucy nodded and Sirius nodded too. It was silent for a moment, "He was a Death Eater too."

"Yeah." Luct turned to Sirius who still hadn't put on any really weight since being freed; "Remus told you and him and Harry's father were in this secret organization that fought Death Eaters." Sirius didn't react, he didn't look at Lucy, "Did━Did you ever face him, fight him?"

Sirius pressed his lips together for a moment before nodding.

"Once, I'd just watch this Death Eater set this house on fire━the Bones house, later we learned that everyone was already dead but at the time we thought they'd burned alive and James and the others were dueling so I take off after them and we're in the woods, our wands are somewhere, we've come to blows and my hand is fucked up from the mask and I grab their mask cause I'm only hurting myself by hitting it and whos there? My little brother," Sirius said bitterly.

"What happened next?"

"I asked him why?"

"What did he say?" Lucy wondered. Bellatrix always went on about how she and the other Death Eaters were doing what was right, Rodolphus spoke as if he were pest control, Rabastan always said he was just, that the cause was just and everything was just means to a just end. Regulus spoke of being a Death Eater around her, but never to her. He never boasted nor did he expect praise from her for being one.

"He said someone had to step up, that I had ruined everything by choosing Jamie and someone had to do something about it."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"He loved you too," Lucy said to Sirius. Sirius sighed,

"Then that makes it worse, doesn't it, that means I let you both down, I'm your older brother I was supposed to protect you both and instead I let mother hurt you and I let Reg die. I let Jamie down by letting him and Lily die and I let Harry down by letting him get hurt by his aunt and uncle, I let everyone down." Lucy moved her hand from under her thigh and grabbed Sirius's bony fingers, he looked down and over at Lucy,

"Then make up for it," she said.

"How?"

"Harry's thirteen and love yous Sirius, be there for him; James Potter put his trust in Pettigrew too, he loved you like a brother, I promise you he wouldn't fault you for what happened and Reggie, Reggie's last journal entry mentioned you, how he thought you were right, he wasn't disappointed by you Sirius, he still loved you."

"And you? How do I make up letting you down?" Sirius asked. Lucy pressed her lips together and looked up at the constellation.

"Don't leave me again."

* * *

**July 31, 1994**

Harry Potter had never had a birthday party. Okay, no that was a lie, he had a party when he had turned one━ though from what Sirius and Remus had said the Potters had been in hiding so even that had just been both James and Lily Potter and their neighbor ━but every birthday after that he had spent locked away either in a room that had been begrudgingly given to him or under a staircase which was why Lucy had sent Remus and Sirius and Harry out of the house as she and the kids━ Weasleys included ━and Birch and Merwyn decorated the house in balloons and streamers while Kreature stayed in the cooking.

Sirius and Remus had both bought harry a mountain of presents, one for every birthday they had missed, Lucy had bought harry a few things, Tahani and Theo, who Lucy had sunk out of the house with the week before, had bought Harry a book on the rules at Hogwarts━ as more a gag gift then anything ━a new potions kit and broom cleaning kit, and a new pair of muggle trainers.

Hagrid, with a present, and plate of rock cookies, was the first to arrive, parked at the edge of the property between trees was the flying motorcycle he kept behind his shack at Hogwarts, and at his feet was Fang, who Meiri allowed to slobber all over her before she and Weezer took to cuddling him. After him was Mr. Weasley who had graciously picked up both Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnagin, two of Harry's dorm mates, who marveled at Lucy as she opened the door.

"Hi Miss," Seamus beamed,

"Hello again Mr. Finnegan, Mr. Thomas, how're you boys?"

"Good, thank you for inviting us," Dean said, his hand clenched around the sleeve of Semus' flannel shirt.

"It's no problem, any friend of Harrys is always welcome here, Ron and the others are in the back, they might be playing quidditch or they might be doing something they shouldn't while mine and Mrs. Weasleys backs are turned, I don't know but have fun and be safe," Lucy told the boys before she sent them off running towards the back yard; though they did stall to gape at both Birch and Merwyn who sat on either side of Mrs. Weasley, chatting with her and Hagrid about their gardens.

Or in Mervyns case, his wife's garden.

Ophelia had been the next to arrive. Dora and Penny came through the fireplace immediately after her.

"Hey Lucy! Hi Mr and Mrs. Weasley," Ophelia said much more shy. Dora and Penny pecked Mrs. Weasleys cheeks and Penny waved at Mr. Weasley as she sat on the arm of the couch next to Hagrid. Dora fist bumped with Birch and knocked elbows with Merwyn while Penny just shook their hands.

"Ophelia!" Mrs. Weasley greeted with a grin as she swept the young Slytherin in a hug; Opehlia gratefully returned the gesture. Mr. Weasley shook her hand and the dark skinned girl looked at Lucy,

"Where do you want me to put the present?"

"There's a small mountain in the kitchen just put it there," Lucy told her.

"Small mountain?" Dora echoed.

"Sirius and Remus bought Harry something for every birthday they missed," Lucy explained and Dora smiled.

"Alright, is everyone out back?" Opehlia wondered, a step away from the kitchen.

"Yup."

"Sweet, it was lovely to see you again Mr. And Mrs. Weasley," Ophelia said before disappearing into the kitchen.

"Who else is supposed to be coming?" Mr. Weasley asked Lucy before he took a bite of his sandwich.

"The Gryffindor quidditch team, Lee Jordan because Harry like him, Oliver Wood, the Arrows and the Longbottoms."

"You invited Augusta? Lucy," Mr. Weasley sighed.

"Look I'm not the only one who thinks you're off your rocker!" Dora said.

"What's wrong with the Longbottoms? Nevilles a nice boy," Hagrid said from the couch.

"Madam Longbottom hates me, she thinks I'm going to be the next Bellatrix," Lucy explained. Neville, thought the previous year, had been nervous enough around her to make Lucy think he knew just who her cousin was.

"That's right the LeStrange's━ " Birch cut himself off, Merwyen turned to Birch with knitted eyebrows and a confused look on his face, who with a look seemed to silently clear up Mervyns questions.

"I doubt getting off with murder helped change her view," Dora joked as Birch got up to use the bathroom.

"Yeah but Pettigrew was a Death Eater who murdered twelve people so shouldn't it?" Penny wondered when a knock came from the front door. Lucy got up from her seat and opened the door not to find the Longbottoms but half of the Appleby Arrows, Harry's favorite Quidditch team. Chasers, Joby, Cora and Lamberto, and captain and Seeker Dylan Montomgery beam at Lucy.

"Black," Dylan greets.

"Monty, thanks for coming," Lucy welcomes them all in,

"Yeah well when you tell us we're the Boy-Who-Lived favorite team we have to come, if only to rub it in your Tornadoes faces."

"Please don't Lynch's last article has Birch up in arms; he may just kill you."

"Merlin Lynch is a prick isn't he?"

"I got tickets to the Cup so I can beat the shit out of him, feel free to join."

"I might."

"Might what?" Birch wondered, he emerged from the hall, "Montgomery," he nodded.

"Birch."

"Beat the shit out of Lynch━ let me know, but right now, that's my family right there, Dora is my cousin and that's her girlfriend Penny━" Both Penny and Dora wave, the Arrows wave back, "━I'm sure you all remember Hagrid, he's a professor now."

"Care of Magical Creatures?" Joby Jeramiah wondered, Hagrid beamed proudly,

"O'course."

"Wicked baby," Joby said.

"And then those are Mr. and Mrs. Weasley," Lucy introduced.

"It's lovely to meet you all," Cora Vygotsky said, her swedish accident think.

"I had Sirius and Remus━"

"The werewolf?" Joby questioned, Lucy glared guardedly,

"My boyfriend," replied sharply.

"Right."

"Anyway, they took Harry out, for all he knows this was just going to be a family thing, they should be back shortly though, but there's snacks and stuff in the kitchen."

"Groovy baby," Job nodded before going to the kitchen in search of food.

Merwyn looked to Dylan, "Last time we saw each other he was calling everyone sweetcheeks, what changed?"

"Iefan Rice from the Welsh team," Dylan replied, "He called her sweetcheeks so she broke half his face with her bat."

"Merlin," Penny gasped.

Lucy shook her head, "He got off lucky, we all know not better then to call Rice nicknames."

"Oh?" Mrs. Weasley wondered.

"Rice," Lamberto said, "Has this thing against nicknames, we don't know what it is but she coat Wales the chance of the championship back in ninety cause Coote, from the Bats, he called her doll and she pushed him off his broom."

"How is she not in jail?" Dora wondered as Hagrid wondered the same.

"You get away with a lot when your famous, isn't that right Black," Dylan ribbed and Lucy slugged him in the shoulder. The Arrows Seeker rubbed his shoulder, chuckling.

"You two seem friendly," Dora observed the two Seekers a few minutes later, pulling out of the conversation with Cora about magical law, "I thought you hated all other Seekers?" She asked Lucy.

"I don't hate them, I'm just competitive, besides Dylan's part of the I-hate-Lynch club."

"There's a club?"

"What did that young man ever do to you?" Mr. Weasley asked in a protective fatherly manor.

Merwyn let out a long whistle, "Which time?"

"Oh?"

"Lynch is sexist jerk who our first game, walked onto the pitch thinking he was going to win because I had apparently bought my way onto the team, and walked off claiming I'd cheated by using dark magic."

"I remember hearing about that," Lamberto said. He looked at Merwyn, "You hit him." Merwyn, proudly nodded.

"I did."

"He never really apologized but he hasn't said anything like that again, but there's just something about him━I don't know there's just something about his face."

"Ha!" Montgomery turned to Cora and laughed mockingly, "See I said so, it's not just me!"

The fireplace erupted into flames and out stepped Neville Longbottom and his grandmother. Agustia Longbottom haven't changed much in the eleven years since Lucy had last seen her; she still wore a large feathered hat and held, in the cook of her arm, a large red handbag, and a short sleeved floral button up dress. She also still glared at Lucy, who stood up from her seat and smiled tensely at the woman.

"Madam Longbottm, Neville, I'm happy the two of you could make it."

"Thank you for inviting us L-Lady Black," Neville stuttered.

"Lucy is fine Neville, really, there are refreshments in the kitchen and the others are out back, Harry should be home soon."

"He's not here?" Agusta Longbottom raised a brow.

"It's a surprise party, I had Remus and Sirius take him out of the house for a few hours.," Lucy answered. Agustia Longbttom pressed her cherry red lips together and frowned.

"Molly, Arthur," she said surpassing Lucy and taking the younger witches seat as Neville walked off towards the back of the house, "How are you?"

"Wonderful Agustia, how are you?"

"Fine, fine, my arthritis has been acting up━I heard your oldest was in town?"

"Yes," Molly beamed at the mention of one of her kids, "Bill."

"I thought he worked in Greece?" Lucy's shoulders dropped and she held Doras hand, she could see where Agusita Longbottom was steering the conversation. The Weasleys could too.

"Egypt actually," Mrs. Weasley repealed succinctly.

"Then why come back for only a week, and in the middle of year?"

"Probably because I murdered a Death Eater Madam Longbottom," Lucy replied sourly.

"That's right," Agustia Longbottom said almost cruelty, almost mockingly, "You did." Agustia Long bottom turned back to face a tense looking .

"And your other children, how are they."

"Wonderful," Molly replied, "Bill and Charlie are coming back for the cup, Charlie, my second, he and his girlfriend work at a dragon sanctuary in Romania, not the safest job but he's always loved dragons━ " Mrs. Weasley then launched into a story about how as a child Charlie used to pretend to be a dragon named Puff, "━And Percy, he's my third, he's gotten a job at the ministry as Barty Crouch's secretary, and George, one of my twins━ " Molly cut herself off, her face alarmed and Lucy and Dora and Penny and Mr. Weasley all seemed to stop breathed.

"And George?" Madam Longbottom promoted.

"Is dating someone. His first girlfriend."

"Is it one of the Fawley girls? They live by you don't they?"

"They do," Mr. Weasley replied, "It's not." Lucy wondered if Hermione Granger still had her time turner, if she could go back in time and hit Lucy over the head until she disinvited the Longbottoms. Or at least knock her out until the party was over and Madam Longbottom and inevitably burned down her house in retribution.

"Is it anyone I would know." Hagrid took a swing of his drink and Merwyn, uncomfortable snorted.

"Probably." Penny hit him. Agusta Longbottom looked at Lucy, a hard unreadable look gleamed dangerously in her eyes, and then she looked calculatingly at Merwyn and Penny and then back at the Weasley parents.

"As long as it isn't that LeStrange girl━" Dora's roots darkened and Lucy squeezed her hand, Mrs. Weasley forced a smile on her face, one that was clearly fake. "━ And if it was?" Dora snapped.

"If it was my cousin dating their son?" Her hair burned red; brightly, it reminded Lucy of fire.

"The I would ask how she managed to tick their boy into that."

"Trick?" The word came out of Lucy's mouth before she could stop it, her voice a snarl, "Ophelia is a sweet girl━"

"A LeStrange━" Lucy stood up, not to intimidate the old woman but because if Dora lunged at her she wouldn't be able to stop her sitting down and if she were to lundge at the old woman Dora would be able to catch her around the waist.

"━You may have forgotten this Madam Longbotom but children are not their parents."

"Perhaps not but bad seeds always come from bad crops."

"Agustia, please," Arthur hissed.

"It's true Arthur, you allowed this girl into your home, a LeStrange into your sons bed━"

"━Excuse me!━" Both Lucy and Dora snapped, Agustia Longbottom did not stop.

"━When will you and Molly realize you are being fooled, before or after they've slaughtered you and your family!"

Molly Weasley rose to her feet, "I think you should leave Agustia."

"Excuse me?"

"Get out, I can drop your son off later after the party, this is Harry Potters birthday party, I won't have you ruining it━ insulting my daughter in her own home, disrespecting her and her family ━so get out, right now, before I make you." Agustia Longbottom opened and closed her mouth for a moment before rising to her feet.

"You are choosing the wrong side Molly."

"You would always choose Frank, how is this different?"

"She is not your blood."

"She's as good as, now get out." And she did; and when her figure disappeared from the flames Lucy looked over at Mrs. Weasley and lunged at her, wrapping her in the tightest hug she could ever remember giving. Mrs. Weasley didn't bother to hesitate in hugging back; she squeezed Lucy just as tightly.

"Thank you," she whispered into Molly Weasley's frizzy ginger hair.

"I always did tell you kids not to lie, didn't I?" Molly laughed wetly as she continued to hug.

…

Harry Potter, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black fifteen minutes later walked into a dark house and a loud chorus of 'Surprise!' causing all three to jump; at the very front of the crowd of people was Lucy, Theo and Tahani holding one end of the large Happy Birthday banner Dean Thomas had made, and Ron, Hermione and Meiri all stood next to them holding up the other side.

"I━what?" Harry gasped. Sirius clasped a hand to his shoulder.

"It's a surprise party mate. Happy Birthday."

And though he didn't cry Lucy Black could see the Boy-Who-Lived came very close to.

* * *

**a/n: omg i am so sorry it's taken me this long to get the chapter out, i've just had such bad writers block! thank you for the comments (shout out to kitandopie because her comments give me life) keep them up, please, and I hope you liked the chapter!**


	14. August 1994 - chapter fourteen

**August 3, 1994**

Lucy Black had only been a Hogwarts School graduate a total of six hours when Vera Rosier and her grandson Fielex, who looked far more like a young man than he himself had when he'd graduated two years prior, ended up in the Burrows living room. The older woman looked as if she had smelled something particularly horrible as she sat on the couch with her ankles crossed, Field looked as if he wanted to be anywhere but where he actually was.

Mr. Weasley, with his glasses on, held the betrothal contract up as he read the document, Mrs. Weasley, with her hands on Lucy's shoulders― Lucy sat stiffly on the ottomen next to the fireplace ―glared at the older woman and her grandson whilst Bill leaned against the wooden column that supported the living room ceiling, doing the same as his mother.

"It," Mr. Weasley shuffled in his seat, his ears red, "Certainly looks binding."

"So it's real then?" Lucy wondered helplessly, her stomach twisting. She knew Filex Rosier from her aunts garden parties and when he scolded her and her friends but they had never really spoken. For all she knew he would have her confined to his family estate like Lucius had done to Narcissa, snuffing out all her dreams of being a Qudditch star.

"Of course it's real," Madam Rosier snapped. Lucy threw the fowl old woman the nastiest glare a Black could muster up, Felix, with a longing look shining in his eyes, looked away and out the window.

Lucy, in ripped muggle trousers and a twisted sister shirt had agreed to meet Marcus Flint for tea at one of the few cafes in Diagon Alley as the others― Sirius, Remus and the kids ―shopped around. It was easy to spot the younger wizard due to the bright yellow and black Quidditch jersey he wore. As Lucy approached the table he sat at Lucy saw that the wizard fiddled with the handle of his blue tea cup.

"Mr. Flint," Lucy greeted warmly. Marcus rose as Lucy pulled her seat out and the two shook hands.

"Madam Lucy," Marcus greated,

"Lucy works just fine Mr. Flint," the pureblood witch grinned and Marcus, with pinkened cheeked nodded.

"Right," Marcus caughed. "Then, uh, feel free to call me Marcus." There was a beat of silence as Lucy looked at Marcus to cotuione, only the Chaser didn't, so Lucy, with her hands in her lap, raised a brow.

"Marcus," Lucy said, "You bowled me saying it's important what's wrong?"

"I'm getting married," he said roughly and Lucy beamed,

"Congratulations, I'm so happy for you and Me―"

"―I'm getting married to Wendy Rowle, my father arranged it two weeks ago." Lucy froze; she felt for Marcus Flint because when Felix Rosiers grandmother had come out of nowhere demanding their betrothal contract be adhered too, she unlike Marcus Flint, hadn't been in love, hadn't dreamed out a life with the person she cared about with every fiber of her being.

"Marcus," Lucy sighed only for the younger man to pull out a stack of papers from his robes.

"You're a Black," Marcus said, "Your family practically wrote the law― you've been in my situation ―is there anyway you can help me?" Lucy looked down at the papers; the first being the betrothal contract itself, the usual header asking Hestia for her blessing was stamped at the very top of the page. In the name of the Goddess, O Hesita, send Your blessings upon the union of these two houses.

Lucy then looked back up at Marcus Flint. "When's the wedding?"

"Next year, July." Lucy nodded and looked down at the papers in her hand.

"I'll have Sirius look at this with me, he learned everything he knows from our grandfathers knee."

"Thank you," Marcus said gratefully, smiling, Lucy reached over the table and patted the top of large hand.

"It's no trouble, I get what you're going through," Lucy told him. She Slipped the papers into her robes pockets and smiled mischievously at the recently graduated wizard, "You are buying me tea through right?"

Marcus, laughing nodded, "And chips if you'd like."

The betrothal hadn't even lasted the summer, Lucy sat in what had been her and Felix's flat with the betrothal contract on the kitchen table and a note in her hand. The weight she'd felt since she'd graduated seemed to lift with every word, as did the smile on her face.

**Lucy,** the note had started out, **I'm sorry, I'm sorry for running out on you like this, for fleaing like a coward but Chester and I we read over the contract a hundred and we've come to realize you don't have a way out of the betrothal but I do. The betrothal was drawn up thinking you would want to run, that whomever you'd be intended to would want to marry you; that they wouldn't even think of binding themselves to anyone else, but I don't, I love Chester. So with this, goodbye, I'm sorry if I've offended you in the slightest, I wish you a wonderful life.**

* * *

**August 10, 1994**

Lucy Black, as she flew around the back of the house with Tahini, Ginny and Harry, throwing a Quaffle between the four of them, wasn't surprised to see Dora emerge from the back door. Lucy knew Dora was prone to randomly dropping by― back when she had lived in her old flat Dora, sometimes, would drop by and stay a night or two before going back to Penny ―but what did surprise Lucy was the fact that the mop of black hair that stood next to Dora wasn't Sirius but however, was Andromeda.

Maybe it shouldn't have, Andromeda Tonks had gone to her trail two months prior, but with no further contact after that Lucy suspected that Andromeda and her would have to come face to face at Sirius or Dora's birthday in the next few months to officially clear the air; the Seeker had never expected Andromeda to just show up.

Lucy turned to the kids, "I'll be back, don't fly too high and Harry's in charge."

"Yes!" Harry hissed victoriously as both Tahani and Ginny, behind Lucy's back, stuck their tongues out at the teenager. Usually, because Theo had never thought to chase down a supposed mass-murder with only three years of magical ability under his belt, Lucy tended to leave him in charge.

Gracefully Lucy landed on the ground in front of Andromeda and Dora, the ladder looking anxious and the former tense; Andromeda's shoulders were stiff and her chin was tilted just slightly high enough to give away that the air of confidence she was trying to emanate was fake. That she was nervous.

"Dora, Dromeda," Lucy breathed and Andromeda's shoulders sagged ever so slightly at the nickname.

"Hey Lucy," Dora smiled, she placed a hand on the small of her mothers back, "Mum has something she wants to say."

Lucy looked at Andromeda who took a deep breath in.

"I'm sorry, for hitting you, it wasn't right―I wasn't right and I'm sorry for telling you to stay away from my family, from Ophelia and Dora and Ted, they're as much your family as they're mine." Lucy, softly smiled at her cousin.

She had never been mad that Andromeda had hit her, she hadn't ever been mad that Andromeda had tried to ban her from Dora and Ophelia, what she had been furious at though, was her treatment of Remus.

Kind, sweet, funny Remus who she was in love with.

"Thank you," Lucy said, "But it's not just me you have to apologize too, you know that right?" Andromeda nodded,

"I do, I have, Nymphadora―"

"―Mum!―"

"And I caught Sirius and Remus on their way out, I apologize for how I acted, how I treated him at christmas."

"You also threatened him in the same breath," Dora chortled and Lucy with wide eyes looked at her cousin,

"Andromeda!"

"I just reminded him that should he break your heart I was still born a Black." Lucy threaded her fingers through her hair,

"Fucking Merlin Andy."

"Like you didn't do that to Penny." Dora choking on her tongue turned to Lucy,

"What?"

The three of them, Lucy, Dora and Penny, sat in the Three Broomsticks with butterbeers in front of them and ice frosting on the outside of the window when Dora excused herself to the bathroom.

Lucy and Penny had always been friendly to one another; both Dora and Mia were both people the pair of them cared deeply for and if Lucy could think back there were even a handful of friendly conversations they'd shared. They weren't quite friends but they weren't just acquaintances either.

Lucy leaned on the table, her forearms pressed against the edge of the table and a fighting glint sparkle in her stormy eyes.

"I care for Dora," Lucy said.

"I do too," Penny agreed.

"Good. You know Dora's like a sister to me, she really is family." Penny didn't respond, "I hope you also know that should anything ever hurt Dora I'd kill them in such a way that when people think Black they don't think Bellatrix or the other one, they'd think of me." Pale, Penny nodded and just as Dora existed the bathroom Lucy smiled soothingly as she leaned back in her chair.

"Fall in the toilet this time?" Lucy teased Dora who shot a very unlady like gester in reply. Lucy cackled gleefully, as if she hadn't just threatened Penny Haywoods life.

"So okay," Lucy nodded at Dora, "I wasn't like that, I was just more telling Penny to err on the side of caution rather than be a dick and break your heart."

"I can't believe you," Dora muttered.

"I can't believe you didn't think she threatened her, Ted lost three galleons cause he thought she wouldn't wait for the week for the trip and would break back into Hogwarts just to do so."

* * *

**August 16, 1994**

Remus Lupin― with the scruff on his face connecting to his mustache, giving the appearance of a patchy, slightly miskept beard ―practically dead on his feet fell into bed next Lucy one afternoon, the witch, with her wand in her hair, holding up her bun, had a book open resting against her angled knee, while the Shebia, the keezel she had found only some months prior in the very house, every so often batted her paw at the wiggling toes of the foot on her outstretched leg.

Lucy ran her fingers through Remus' hair, her blunt nails scraped along his scalp as she did so; his arms buried themselves under the pillow he had pulled forward to bury his face against.

"What's wrong?" Lucy wondered, she earmarked the page she'd been half way through― Penny had recommended the muggle book, The Breath of Suspension, which in all actuality was just a collection of muggle science fiction stories Lucy couldn't get enough of ―and placed the book to her side of the bed, on the oak and glass bedside table closest to the tangerine colored wall. Remus turned his head and sighed; he flipped onto his back, Lucy kept her hand in his hair, her fingers tangled with soft light brown strands, the pillow he'd smothered his face with, was tucked under his chin.

"Sirius wants to take Harry to Godric's Hollow," Remus told her, Lucy could see twelve years worth of anger and frustration spark to life in his eyes. Remus' teeth scraped over his lip.

"What's in Godric's Hollow besides the house?" Lucy wondered. Godric's Hollow, to any muggle was just another town on a map, no different from Devon or Kings Lynn, but to witches and wizards it was where on Halloween Night, Harry Potter had somehow defeated the Dark Lord, and to Sirius and Remus, it was where James and Lily Potter had been murdered.

"It's where James and Lily are buried," Remus said.

"Seriously?" It had never stuck Lucy that James and Lily Potter would have been buried so close to where they had been murdered; she always assumed they had been buried in one of the towns they grew up in.

Remus nodded. "It's―Harry deserves to go to his parents graves it's just―" Remus cut himself off and sat up, Lucy's hand ran down his neck until she was rubbing the space between his shoulder blades.

"You ―can't?" Lucy wondered and Remus nodded. Lucy understood, he couldn't go to Godric's Hollow anymore then she could ever go back to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place.

"The last time I was there was at the funeral, Lucy and I―it's not like I still blame Sirius, I don't," Remus stressed. "It's just that―"

"Just that the last time you were there you were alone," Lucy finished and Remus nodded mutely.

"Then tell Sirius you can't go," Lucy told Remus.

'But I want to," Remus rebutted, he didn't argue but there was a note of frustration in his tone. The werewolf moved and got off the bed, his fingers locked behind his neck as he began to pace the width of the bed, Lucy moved so she was kneeling against the mattress.

"Then I don't what you want me to say Remus?" She doubted he wanted her to tell him to grow a pair and get over his own feelings for Harry and Sirius' sake.

"I―" He paused mid step and turned to her as one would do in the changing of the guard. "I want you to come too, for me, please." Lucy didn't outright deny the request, she didn't laugh or scoff or roll her eyes, she did however, blink, dumbly at Remus.

"You want me to come with you to Lily and James Potter's graves?"

"Please," he pleaded and suddenly Lucy realized, in an epiphany of clarity, that she had never made her resentment of James Potter public, that the two people on earth who knew of the deep seated anger towards the dead father were Bill and Molly Weasley.

"Why?" Lucy wondered.

"Because I need you there," Remus told her. How can I say no to that? Lucy mused.

"Alright," she nodded and Remus sighed, his tense shoulders sagged.

"Thank you."

"Yeah," Lucy forced a cocky grin on her face, "I know, I'm amazing and you're lucky to know me." Remus snickered as he too started to kneel against the bed, his eyes dark but his eyebrows quirked up playfully, a small smile on his own lips.

At least it'll be worth it, Lucy thought heatedly. Lucy leaned forward and Remus wrapped an arm around her waist and dragged her over the white bedsheets, Lucy though she didn't laugh, helt her heart swell as she pressed against Remus' chest, her fingers rested on his shoulders. Lucy's lips grazed against Remus'.

"Is that so Lady Black?" The werewolf mused and Lucy, suddenly colder then she'd been only seconds before. groaned, she leaned back away from Remus, and flopped against the mattress.

"Nevermind you've ruined it!" Lucy cried, throwing her arms in the air before letting them fall limply next to her. Lady Black, who was she her mother?

"What?" Remus laughed as he crawled over her, "No, come on, I can un-ruin it," Remus said, he slowly leaned down― his arms slightly trembling as he did so ―to kiss her lips, Lucy however turned her head before he could causing the werewolf's lips to land firmly on her left cheek. Remus reeled back, a scandalized expression on his face.

"Really?" Lucy hummed in response, mischief twinkled in her eyes.

"Alright," Remus muttered, but Lucy caught the defiant look on his face and a playful terror she still wasn't quite used to experiencing gripped her heart.

A moment later Lucy, as she tried to wiggle away from him, letting out a shrieking laugh as Remus, laughing loudly, tickled her sides.

**…**

Theo and Tahani had opted to eat dinner at the Weasley's, Lucy had offered to make them something before she, Harry, Sirius and Remus apparate to Godric's Hollow but neither Theo nor Tahani wanted to miss out the pie Ron had said Mrs. Weasley had made.

Lucy didn't want to miss out on the pie; it felt almost like she were a child again, Sirius was leaving for school, practically bouncing off the walls of their childhood home, talking about Jamsie this and Jamsie that, leaving Lucy to stew in the shadows of the hallways wondering what was so good about James Potter and why her brother couldn't wait to leave her for him.

The ugly feeling In Lucy's chest, the one that tightened around her ribs as Sirius told Harry about the time he and bispecticaled boys father snuck into Ravenclaw tower to prank, on a at the time first year Gilderoy Lockheart, was without a doubt the same feeling Reggie would feel whenever he went on one of his anti-James Potter rants once Sirius had flounced off to the Potter homestead for the last two weeks of break.

It was jealousy.

The four of them, Lucy and Remus, hand-in-hand, next to Harry and Sirius walked up the road to where Godric's Hollow town square was; Remus had mentioned a statue and Sirius had made the executive decision that neither she nor Remus had asked him to make, to visit the statue before the cemetery.

"―And I mean this brat was a total git Harry, obviously nothing changed between eleven and twenty three but Merlin, your mother nearly took off his head one time," Sirius mooned.

"Really?" Harry gasped

"Phst―yeah, he stopped buy one time when we were in potions, well she and your father were in potions, Moony and I had arthmacy but from how Jamsie told it he ruined their potion, he fancied your mum, most first years back then then―"

"Lily never dyed them purple Padfoot," Remus said and it sounded more like he was reminding Sirius;

"Whatever." Sirius snorted, "Anyway, he ruined their potion because he's a git and he's trying to show off and while Slughorn's back was turned because only Merlin knows how Hestia Jones got into NEWT potions, she threatened to drown him in their cauldron if she didn't get an O by the end of class." Harry beamed at the story.

"Prongs came back to the dorm saying how he was in love didn't he?" Remus wondered to Sirius who nodded,

"Yeah, said nothing was hotter than when she got mad, isn't that right?"

"Ew," Harry muttered and Lucy chortled at his response. Sirius opened his mouth to respond to Harry only to be cut off by a loud gasp, the four of them looked at a man with balding part to his hair and a thick blonde mustache, a heavily pregnant woman― his wife if the rings on their fingers were anything to go by ―and their two children, gawked at them.

Or rather, they gawked mostly at Harry and Sirius, though the young boy who held tightly onto his mother's hand and wore a familiar blue jersey gapped at Lucy as if he were a fish out of water.

"You're―you're Harry Potter!" The man gasped once more and Sirius, as the man stepped forward no doubt to shake Harry's hand, stepped between them with a sharp look on his face.

"And you're Sirius Black! Wonderful!" The man cheered as he grabbed Sirius' hand and shook it. Sirius, shocked and more than slightly off kilter at the reaction of the man in front of him.

"Reginald," The mans wife swatted the back of his shoulder, "Let the man be!" Their son, as Reginald turned to his wife in response stepped forward towards Lucy and Remus. The boy was blonde like his father, though he was as skinny and frail looking as his mother; he and his younger sister who was still settled mostly asleep on their fathers hip shared a nose and if Lucy had checked she would have noticed his eyes were a cobalt blue while his family were a honey gold.

"You're Black Lighting!" He squeaked, "I'm your biggest fan!" The boy couldn't have been more than seven.

Lucy kneeled down, smiling, "Is that so?" The boy nodded eagerly,

"Well then it's a pleasure to meet you…" Lucy prompted,

"Alfred, but my sister calls me Al, you can too if you want, I want to be a seeker just like you because you're the best!" Lucy beamed at the young boy you was being eyed by his mother; the woman, despite her bony looking nature, looked ready to scoop him up and away from Lucy at any moment and Lucy wasn't quite sure wether or not she should be offened because on one hand she had just gone through a very public murder trail, but on the other hand she had gone through a very public murder trial because she had murdered a Death Eater who had esacped Ministry capture by faking his death and framing an innocent man, ergo she wasn't her cousin who murdered innocent children in their beds.

"Thank you Al, though I doubt I'll be the best when you step onto the pitch."

Alfred's mouth fell open, "You really think I can be better than you?"

"A little hard work and a lifetime of devotion to the game why not?" Lucy shrugged, "Someone's going to be better then me one day, why not have it be you?" The boy turned to his mother and grabbed onto her coat,

"Mum! Mum! Miss. Black Lightning said I can be better than her one day! Did you hear!"

"I did―Reginald leave Lord Black Mr. Potter alone!"

"I'm not―no," Sirius denied the title, as Reginalds wife grabbed her husbands shoulder in one hand and her sons wrist in the other, muttering about her boys. She went to take a step around the four of them only to pause and look at them,

"Dirk Cresswell and his daughter are at the memorial but aside from him we were the only other people there."

"Thank you," Remus said, the woman, nearly flinching as she, for the first time since she and her family had run into them, looked at Remus.

Wordlessly she nodded before she pulled her husband and son away from them, the four of them stared at the families back as they scurried down the street, the dark haired wife hissing something unheard to Riginald who for half a second turned and looked back.

"So?" Lucy wondered teasingly as she looked at Harry, her fingers tightly clinging to Remus', "Did you get that a lot when you were a kid or is being famous still a culture shock?"

"Uh, well, there was this one time when I was out with my aunt Petunia and someone shook my hand and then that time Hagrid took me school shopping my first year and a bunch of people shook my hand in the leaky cauldron―"

"And that time with Lockheart," Lucy added smarily, "I remember seeing the picture in the Prophet." Harry shot her a faux contemptuous look.

They all turned back in the direction they were heading and Lucy could see a gleaming obelisk, the distance, a man and his daughter leaving in the opposite direction and then as they got closer the statue changed. Muggle of course didn't see it, but as Sirius and Harry and Remus and Lucy got closer and closer it became clear that the obelisk had changed into a bronze statue of what had once been the Potter family.

Even in death, immortalized for his sacrifice James Potter's hair couldn't sit still. Just as Sirius had always complained about, James Potter had the messiest, most untidy hair Lucy had ever seen, it was as if his whole head was one perpetual cowlick.

Lily Potter, holding what was an infant Harry Potter― who looked content to be in his mother's arms ―smiled at Harry, who she and James were turned down to look at, looked young probably because she was― had been ―only twenty one when she and James Potter had been murdered in their home.

Both Harry and Sirius took a few steps further then she and Remus had; Harry had walked all the way up to the statute only to hesitate in putting his hand against the warm bronze that was his father's leg.

Remus' grip on Lucy's hand became almost painful when Sirius let out a whimper that sounded like a strangled Prongs. Harry turned away from the statue, his green eyes glimmering with tears,

He opened his mouth only no words came out, just a gurgling sound. And then, with the speed that only someone who constantly ran for their lives possessed, he darted out of the town square.

"Harry!" Sirius jerked to go after his godson, only to stall when Lucy, who was far faster than him, tore off after Harry. She didn't call out his name as she chased behind him, he was quick but she was only ever a few steps behind, only to realise when he had finally stopped running it was at the mouth of the Godric Hollow cemetery.

Harry, looking small, despite the fact that his clothes actually fit him, turned to Lucy. Tears streamed down his face.

"They're dead," he said, his voice raw, "I always knew that, never expected that they'd be hiding or anything but, they're dead." Lucy didn't reply, she didn't step closer to Harry as his fits balled up at his sides, "I just. They were alive and then they weren't I never knew them, it never bothered me but then I just―the statue, they were alive ―they're dead now," Harry whispered, "And I'll never know them." And then he let out a heartbreaking sob and Lucy knew that was when she had to move.

Harry fell into her like a lumbering tree in a storm and Lucy wrapped her arms around him.

"It'll be okay," Lucy cooed soothingly, "It's going to be okay." Because I'll make it okay was where her mind went to, only this was an instance where she couldn't magic up an outcome, couldn't buy the end result she wanted.

"No it's not, it won't be," Harry "My parents are dead!" Lucy breathed heavily, "It's my fault." Lucy reeled back,

"How can you say that?" She cried.

"Voldemort―" Lucy shuttered at the name, "―Murdered them because of me, if they'd just let me die―"

"―Hey!―"

"―They'd still be alive"

"But you'd be dead!"

"So, they'd be alive!"

"And you'd be dead! Harry listen to me, You-Know-who going after your parents, them rather dying than living in a world without you, guess what? That's not your fault, none of that is your fault, if you want to blame anyone, blame You-Know-Who or Pettigrew or literally anyone but yourself."

"But it is my fault, I was the reason Voldemort killed my parents."

"He killed a lot of people Harry, I can name several right now he killed personally before you were even born."

"And?"

"I was a kid during the war and well, no one ever really tried to shield me from it so trust me when I say someone would have killed your parents whether you were born or not." Harry practically stumbled back horrified.

"How can you say that!" He demanded to know.

"Your muggle born mother married your blood-traitor father, Harry they had targets painted on their backs the moment the war started, they actively fought against You-Know-Who, sooner or later for one of those reasons or another someone would have caught up with them."

"But it wasn't either of those reasons, it was because of me―"

"And what if it was?" Lucy could hear footsteps coming up behind her, "I'm happy they're dead―" Harry paled, "―Because if the alternative was you dead in pram then guess what, I'm not upset." Harry's lip trembled, words lodged in his throat, "You're an incredible boy Harry, you saved Ginny's life last year, you saved everyone's lives three times over already and you know what? When I was eleven years old and terrified I'd either have to die or end up like my family you saved me from ever having to face that reality so I'm happy you're not dead, even if it means your parents are, and I'm positive Ron is too, and Hermionie and Meiri and everyone else who loves you with all their heart so get this kid," Lucy pointed at Harry, "Your parents chose to give their lives to save yours; just like you choose to dress the way you do in the morning or I choose which jam to put on my toast or Remus chooses which book to read, okay? Someone else's decisions aren't your fault, got it? You're not allowed to bare their weight."

* * *

**August 17, 1994**

Everyone knows of Jacob Lewinsky's disappearance, he was an odd boy for sure, always talking about curses that were rumored to have existed and magical creatures that definitely didn't, no one ever said it to his face but he was a freak. Everyone expected his sister to be one too, and she was in some ways.

She was driven to find her brother and had a one track mind that didn't allow her to think of anything else aside from that. But she was kind too, in a way her brother had never been, and perhaps that was why Lucy stood up for the young girl.

Perhaps it was because she knew what it was like to be judged for a brothers actions; or perhaps Bill had just been rubbing off on her. Either way Lucy hadn't thought before cursing the other first year girl, Snide and leading Mia Lewinsky out of the common room, ignoring Felix Rosiers protests about it being far past curfew.

"You're Lucy Black," Mia Lewinsky said, the pair of them were headed towards the kitchens. For once Lucy didn't hear the obligatory You're Sirius Blacks sister.

"And your Mia Lewinsky." Lucy hadn't even thought to tack on her brother but rather of the trouble the young girl had already stirred up.

"I heard you were a second year last year and you dueled a fifth year and won." Lucy looked at Mia with a raised brow as the poroate of the fruit bowl shot open,

"Only one fifth year, huh?" When the rumor had taken off after she'd punched a third year boy for teasing Bill she had apprently, been ontop of thresal, fought a team of Arouras while trying to sneak out and murder The Harry Potter in her brothers name only to get out of the charges because she had more money then Merlin.

"You dueled more than one fifth year?" Mia wondered.

"No, Merlin."

"Oh."

"I heard you and your friend Kahn survived a night with Devils Snare."

"We did." Lucy choked on her tongue because she hadn't been expecting that, she thought perhaps she and the other first year had gotten trapped in the greenhouse and the story was just another wild story some bored Hufflepuff had decided to expand upon.

"You're joking?"

"No."

"Then why the hell were you just taking it from Snyde like that? If you can survive a night trapped in a room with Devils snare just jinx the bint!"

"I don't want to fight everyone," Mia replied softly. No one had taken Lucy under their wing, the only person who had decided she'd been worth something was Bill and he hadn't taken her under his wing, but rather taken her hand and promised to never let go and perhaps that was what Rowen Kahn had done with Mia Lewinsky but sill, in Lucy's opinion, an older student having her back and having Bill at her side wouldn't have hurt.

Which was why she lead Mia over to the large chairs in the corner of the kitchens near the fireplace.

"Look Lewinsky, you're a Slytherin, and maybe things were different when our parents were kids but now being a Slytherin means we're never going to be done fighting.

"What do mean?"

"Friendships with the other houses are going to be rare, not impossible, but rare, a bunch of evil people came from Slytherin within the past few decades so everyone sort of just blames us and then there's people like Snyde that are going to hate you not for your house but because of your family so basically what I'm telling you is grow a spine, no way you make it out of this year without one."

It had been barely morning but everyone at the Burrow― expect Mrs. Weasley who had worked herself up into a tizzy and had to be taken inside by Percy, and Mr. Weasley who was running late in returning home from work ―was up and waiting just outside the house excitedly. Not because Merlin himself had risen from the head and decided that the Burrow was where he'd make his new but rather because Charlie and Mia were supposed to be arriving that morning to stay for the Quidditch World Cup.

Remus and Sirius, shoulder to shoulder on the wooden bench the twins had blown up more times the Lucy could remember were most asleep while Meriri stood in front of Harry, Ron and Theo animedley talking about dragons and which bread was which while the twins and Ginny and Tahani all giggled between themselves.

And just as Lucy went to turn and wonder what the four were giggling about she sees them, Charlie Weasley and his large beater-like shoulders and Mia Lewinsky's large frizzy hair on top of the hill.

"Mia!" Lucy called out loudly; Remus jumped and Sirius knocked his coffee mug to the ground, swearing loudly as it shattered on the ground, though Lucy paid neither of them any mind as she ran to her friends. Ginny and Meiri were hot on her tail and as she jumped into the outstretched arms of Mia Lewinsky the two younger girls lunged at Charlie who stumbled as he caught them.

"Holy fuck Mia I missed you!" Lucy said to the younger witch, hugging her tightly.

MIa with a laugh agreed with the sentiment, "―But don't swear Mrs. Weasley will hear you!"

"Who cares you're home!" Lucy pulled away and looked at Charlie who was already smiling at her softly, "You're both home!"

"We would have been home two months ago if it weren't mandatory to have at least seven of us per-dragon," Charlie said and Lucy nodded her head understanding as they all started to move towards the Burrow.

"I get it," Lucy told him as Mia and him seemed to swap, Meiri and Ginny ended up in Mia's arms, Ginny's face squashed against the side of my neck and Meiri was spitting out strands of frizzy black hair and Lucy ended up pressed against Charlies broad chest. She could, as she hugged him back just as tightly as he hugged her, feel raised scarring from his years at the dragon preserve.

So she hugged him tighter.

**…**

Bill, who had said he would be arriving only a few days before the World Cup had lied, because during lunch, as Lucy told Remus about the time Mia― as said witch crowed that what had happened hadn't been too bad ―had flipped from her broom and taken Charlie down with her, thus leading to Madam Hooch banning her from the pitch Bill had snuck up behind her and shook her shoulders roughly in surprise.

Lucy of course had screamed― both because she hadn't been expecting someone to come up behind her and because she hadn't been expecting Bill to come up from behind her ―while Mrs. Weasley who had been talking to Penny about potions rolled her eyes, muttering something about how kids never change.

Whilst Dora, who later that night, just having missed dinner, had stumbled inside the Burrow with a gnome nipping at her ankle wondered loudly if Lucy liked the surprise she and Bill had coordinated.

"A surprise from you?" Lucy laughed, leaning back in her seat, "You can't keep a secret!"

"That's not true!" Dora cried. Everyone at the table looked at Dora, "Anymore, Mad-Eye's made sure I can keep my mouth shut thank you very much" Dora replied as she went to sit down, only to miss her seat and end up on the floor.

Penny laughing, helped her girlfriend to her feet and into her chair as Harry and Ron, both beaming, listened to Charlie and Mia tell them all about a dragon named Norbertia.

Later that night, hours later, after Ron had accidently nearly drowned himself in a glass of milk Mr. Weasley had called it night for the kids; Ginny and Meriri had whined and complained as Mrs. Weasley lead them up the stairs, Percy floated Ron up to the top floor and the twins, who had been locked in their room all day, only coming down for a midnight drink, made a big show about not wanting to go to bed and Sirius had taken Harry, Theo and Tahani back to house leaving the ten friends― as Barnaby, Andre, Merula and Ben had all showed up ―and Remus and Gadrel who had arrived with Mueral, to sit out back at the picnic table, laughing and drinking and reminiscing as they told old stories.

"Remember when Merual dared Mia she couldn't steal Sinestra's panties?" Dora wondered. Remus spluttered into his drink as he looked at both younger witches. Charlie and Bill collapsed into one another giggling at the memory. Lucy and Mia looked at one another and shared a secret smile while Merula slammed her head against the tabletop. Gadrel rubbed Marulas back as Barnaby slapped the back of his hand against his palm as he Ben and Andre all debated the use of real or synthetic furs.

"I'm sorry what?"

Lucy and Bill had a week until they graduated. Merula Snyde, as the pair of them, Dora and Mia hung around the school courtyard, walked up with her chim tilted back.

'What do you want Snyde?" Mia sighed. The pair of them had patched over their differences and Merula no longer called people mudbloods, nor did she aspire to be like her parents, but she and Mia still duled in the corridors every other day for the hell of it.

"I have a dare for you Lewinsky."

"What are you ten? Merlin Merula grow up," Dora snorted, but both Lucy and Mia were lost to the world. Everyone always assumed it was Gryffindors who wouldn't back out of dares because they were brave and courageous and maybe perhaps they were right, but no one's tunnel vision when it came to dares rivaled the Slytherin houses.

The serpent house prided itself on ambition and unofficially, spite, and nothing was more ambitious or spiteful then completing a dare you were supposed to lose.

"What's the date?" Mia challenged Bill groaned, the back of his head thumping against a tree he had been leaning against.

"I dare you to steal a pair of Professor Sinistra panties."

"What?" Dora wondered.

"She'll do it," Lucy said, "Because I'll be helping her."

"Fine," Merula shrugged, "Just know when neither of you can do it you'll both owe me one favor."

"Fine." When the short haired witch left Bill, unamused looked at Lucy.

"You are going to get expelled a week before graduation."

"Will not."

"Your girlfriend," Dora slurred pointing at Lucy, "Helped crazy over there," she pointed to Mia, "Go on a pantie raid and then made Merual over there wear the panties." Remus turned to Lucy who smiled sweetly at him.

"Hey Mueral, wanna tell Gade what happened the next year."

"Fuck you Black!" the pure-blood witch cried, her voice muffled by the table."

"What happened next year?" Gadrel wondered.

"Merula was found in a broom closet with Professor Sinistra panties around her ankles. By Professor Sinestra."

"Holy fuck," Gadrel weezed. Merula then pushed him off the bench.

"How about the time Lewinsky and Charlie walked in on Flitwick and the Defense professor that year―"

"You too!" Lucy cried, and high fived Charlie as he cheered at the horrifying memory,

"Or when Black ran face first into a wall?" Remus, biting his lip, turned to Lucy.

"Why?"

"It's not that bad of a story, really it could have happened to anyone," Lucy said.

"Anyone who was blind," Penny muttered and with a betrayed expression Lucy looked at Penny.

"Eh tu Penny?"

"Which muggle said that?" Penny challenged, Lucy stuck her tongue out at the blonde and turned to Remus.

"I blame Dora."

"Bullshit! You're just a human mess with legs!"

"First off, fuck you all, except you Bill, you're an angel, second off it was Dora's fault."

Nymphadora Tonks did not want to walk to her common room, her legs were tired and her body ached and she complained about both these facts and the fact she could feel that the blisters on her feet had blisters, very loudly.

"Merlin Dora do you just want a piggyback ride?" Lucy asked, they― she, Dora and Barnaby ―and all only just stood up from the table and she fully intended to make Baranby carry the pink haired witch, only for said witch, to hop on her back instead of verbally responding, leading to Lucy to, instead of falling backwards like she had started to when her cousin had jumped onto her back, shift her weight forward and start running, only to crash into the large wooden Great Hall door.

"And how was it Dora's fault?" Remus mused, his hand on Lucys thigh under the table.

"Because she jumped on my back and I just reacted."

"By running head first into a wall?"

"Technically they were the Great Halls doors."

"Not as embarrassing as when Sirius accidentally asked Mad-Eye out," Remus told Lucy only to pale when he realised what he'd said. The table which had gone quite looked at Remus who looked like he had broken an unbreakable vow and only had seconds to live, and Lucy who looked like she had struck gold.

"Merlin help you Lupin if you don't me that story right now I will never shag you again!"

* * *

**August 25, 1995**

Lucy had been the first to wake up, the sun hadn't quite yet risen over the horizon, not that she was surprised, the clock on her side of the bed read three-fifteen. The others, Bill, Charlie, Mia, Penny and Dora would all get to sleep in but Lucy knew that if they wanted to get to Weasleys for breakfast and then to the portkey for the scheduled time three-fifteen was pushing it, especially with how long it took to wake both Tahani and Remus up.

Lucy rolled over and gently shook Remus, "Remus," she said, "Remus, it's quidditch world cup, come on." Remus, still fast asleep moaned lowly from the back of his throat and then turned on his side. Lucy blew hot air out of her nostrils and began to shake him harder, "Remus you git get the fuck up." Remus once more made another incomprehensible low sounding noise in the back of his throat.

Lucy glared at her sleeping-whatever and then made a grab for her wand which she pressed against her own throat, "Sonorus," she casted, "Remus Lupin!" Remus jumped up from the bed as the walls shook from the volume of Lucy's voice. Lucy, on the floor, from where Remus had accidentally flung her wondered if the soundproofing charms he'd performed when helping her set up the house would hold against a charm that purposefully made someone loud.

"I'm awake, I'm awake!" Remus squawked, floundering in the bed, Lucy laughed at the werewolf,

"Good now come on, todays the cup and we still have to get Sirius and the kids up and make it to the Weasleys." Remus still on the floor glared up at the ceiling.

"I hate quidditch," Lucy gasped.

"Those words are grounds for me to kick your ass Lupin."

"Knock me out and I can go back to sleep."

"Get dressed you git," Lucy blew a raspberry at the older man as she turned around and rifled through her dresser for muggle clothing. The prophet's weather section the day before had said that while it would be sunny thought the week that unless the planet was somehow moved closer to the sun then the temperature, despite it being August, would stay in the mid-sixties so Lucy settled on a pair of ripped muggle jeans that were shared between her and Dora, her leather boots that were worn on the toe showing the steel tips underneath and a tight fitting tank top that she hid under one of cream colored Remus' jumpers.

Lucy then made sure the bag she had packed before hand, four days worth of clothing, the extra toothbrushes and her deorderant was placed on the edge of her bed next to Remus' rucksack of clothing and such.

With her wand in her hair, and an appreciative glance to Remus who though half asleep was beginning to change, Lucy left their bedroom and ran into both Harry and Theo. Landing on her butt as Theo landed on his stomach and Harry on his hands and knees she chuckled.

"You know it's nice your rushing but maybe don't kill me in the process," she joked with the boys, both of whom apologized as they helped her up; her chest churches in nostalgia, growing up with the Weasley family had meant racing Bill and Charlie to the bathroom in the morning only to be beat out by Percy or one of the twins. It was nice to know that while everything changed some things never really did. "It's fine, it's fine―though you both do remember there is more than one bathroom in the house?"

"Sirius is in the one nearst the living room and Thanai is in the other," Harry explained blushing.

"And you both thought to race each other to the one up here?" Theo ducked his head and nodded, his palm clasped to the back of his neck. Lucy hummed in response, grinning.

"When I was a kid I used to use the tripping jinx on Bill when racing him to the bathroom." Theo looked up at Lucy and raised a brow,

"And what did Bill use?"

"The ebublio jinx." Said jinx trapped targets in a large, unbreakable bubble only to disappear at the will of the caster. Bill and her had also once used the jinx the trap the other in a bubble to see if they could run on the river water while in the bubble.

"Good to know," Theo smirked, Harry's eyes narrowed at Theo before the paler of the two boys took off running down the hall. Harry then pushed off the spot he had been standing in, running after him.

**…**

Mr. Weasley, as Mrs. Weasley stood tiredly at the stove stirring a large pot and Meiri and the Weasley children, along with Hermione Granger and Ophelia, sat tiredly at the table, sat at the head of the long kitchen table, counting tickets and wore what appeared to be a golfing sweater and a very old pair of jeans, slightly too big for him and held up with a thick leather belt.

"Morning!" Lucy grinned. Remus and Tahani both groaned at her chipper voice.

"How―" Sirius ywanned into his fist, "―Are you so awake. The suns not even up?"

"The same way you're able to stay up all night, habit," Lucy shot back as she kissed the tops of Ginny and Meiris heads. And it was true, as a Professional quidditch player practices lasted from five in the morning to five in the evening and on days she and the Tornadoes had games Lucy and the Team would be woken up at three in the morning to get in pre-game training for the game that would then start at ten.

"Where're Bill and Charlie and Per-Per-Percy?" said George, failing to stifle a huge yawn as Theo moved to sit next to Meriri. Ginny and Tahani shared a seat. Ophelia who had fallen back asleep next to him rested her head on his shoulder

"Well, they're Apparating, aren't they?" said Mrs. Weasley, heaving the large pot over to the table and starting to ladle porridge into bowls. "So they can have a bit of a lie-in."

"Why couldn't Moony and I apparate?" Sirius grumbled at Lucy.

"So they're still in bed?" said Fred grumpily, pulling his bowl of porridge toward him. "Why can't we Apparate too?"

"Because between the nine kids two of them happen to be living breathing poltergeists and four of them constantly run head first into danger," Lucy replied as Mrs. Weasley snapped at Fred.

"You have to pass a test to Apparate?" Harry asked.

"Oh yes," said Mr. Weasley, tucking the tickets safely into the back pocket of his jeans. "The Department of Magical Transportation had to find a couple of people the other day for Apparating without a license. It's not easy, Apparition, and when it's not done properly it can lead to nasty complications. This pair I'm talking about went and splinched themselves."

Everyone around the table except Harry and Tahani winced.

"Er — splinched?" wondered Tahani.

"They left half of themselves behind," said Mr. Weasley, now spooning large amounts of treacle onto his porridge. "So, of course, they were stuck. Couldn't move either way. Had to wait for the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad to sort them out. Meant a fair old bit of paperwork, I can tell you, what with the Muggles who spotted the body parts they'd left behind. . . ." Lucy grimaced; she could remember her apparition test and how one boy had left an eye behind in his bright purple hula hoop while another girl had left everything from her kneecaps down behind.

"Were they okay?" Harry asked, startled.

"Oh yes," said Mr. Weasley matter-of-factly. "But they got a heavy fine, and I don't think they'll be trying it again in a hurry. You don't mess around with Apparition. There are plenty of adult wizards who don't bother with it. Prefer brooms — slower, but safer."

"But Bill and Charlie and Percy can all do it?" Harry wondered, he looked at Lucy and Remus and Sirius, "You can all do it too?"

"Of course," Sirius said as he ruffled Harry's already untidy hair as Lucy, with a mouth full of prague nodded.

"Charlie had to take the test twice," said Fred, grinning. "He failed the first time, Apparated five miles south of where he meant to, right on top of some poor old dear doing her shopping, remember?"

"Yes, well, he passed the second time," said Mrs. Weasley, marching back into the kitchen amid hearty sniggers.

"Percy only passed two weeks ago," said George. "He's been Apparating downstairs every morning since, just to prove he can."

"Like you won't be doing the same when you pass?" Lucy wondered pointed at the twins.

"We would never abuse our magic," Fred said with a grin. Everyone at the table snorted.

"Why do we have to be up so early?" Ginny, yawning and rubbing her eyes wandered.

"We've got a bit of a walk," said Mr. Weasley.

"Walk?" said Harry. "What, are we walking to the World Cup?"

"No, no, that's miles away," said Lucy, smiling as Mr. Weasley ate the food in front of him, "We only need to walk a short way. It's just that it's very difficult for a large number of wizards to congregate without attracting Muggle attention. We have to be very careful about how we travel at the best of times, and on a huge occasion like the Quidditch World Cup —"

"George!" said Mrs. Weasley sharply, and they all jumped.

"What?" said George, in an innocent tone that deceived nobody. Sirius with a shared look between him and Remus chuckled into his cup of coffee.

"What is that in your pocket?"

"Nothing!"

"Don't you lie to me!"

Mrs. Weasley pointed her wand at George's pocket and said, "Accio!" Several small, brightly colored objects zoomed out of George's pocket; he made a grab for them but missed, and they sped right into Mrs. Weasley's outstretched hand.

"We told you to destroy them!" said Mrs. Weasley furiously, holding up what were the tiny golden candies Mrs. Weasley had told her the twins had been making. "We told you to get rid of the lot! Empty your pockets, go on, both of you!"

"Accio! Accio! Accio!" she shouted, and toffees zoomed from all sorts of unlikely places, including the lining of George's jacket and the turn-ups of Fred's jeans and even a sleeping Ophelia's back pocket.

"We spent six months developing those!" Fred shouted at his mother as she threw the toffees away.

"Oh a fine way to spend six months!" she shrieked. "No wonder you didn't get more O.W.L.s!"

By the time they took their departure a cool breeze was in the air and the moon was still out. Only a dull, greenish tinge along the horizon to their right showed that daybreak was drawing closer. Mrs. Weasley was still glowering as she kissed Mr. Weasley on the cheek, though not nearly as much as the twins, who had each hoisted their rucksacks onto their backs and walked out without a word to her.

"Well, have a lovely time," said Mrs. Weasley, "and behave yourselves," she called after the twins' retreating backs, but they did not look back or answer. "I'll send Bill, Charlie, and Percy along around midday," Mrs. Weasley said to Mr. Weasley and Lucy, as they and the others set off across the dark yard after Fred and George.

Harry away from his friends walked over to Lucy and Remus and Sirius and Mr. Weasley, all of whom were chuckling at various topics.

"So how does everyone get there without all the Muggles noticing?" Harry asked and Lucy giggled because at one point or the other Muggles always noticed; no matter how obvious an unperceptive her family and the Ministry always made them out to be Muggles did have eyes.

"It's been a massive organizational problem," sighed Mr. Weasley. "The trouble is, about a hundred thousand wizards turn up at the World Cup, and of course, we just haven't got a magical site big enough to accommodate them all. There are places Muggles can't penetrate, but imagine trying to pack a hundred thousand wizards into Diagon Alley or platform nine and three-quarters. So we had to find a nice deserted moor, and set up as many antiMuggle precautions as possible. The whole Ministry's been working on it for months. First, of course, we have to stagger the arrivals. People with cheaper tickets have to arrive two weeks beforehand. A limited number use Muggle transport, but we can't have too many clogging up their buses and trains — remember, wizards are coming from all over the world. Some Apparate, of course, but we have to set up safe points for them to appear, well away from Muggles. I believe there's a handy wood they're using as the Apparition point. For those who don't want to Apparate, or can't, we use Portkeys. They're objects that are used to transport wizards from one spot to another at a prearranged time. You can do large groups at a time if you need to. There have been two hundred Portkeys placed at strategic points around Britain, and the nearest one to us is up at the top of Stoatshead Hill, so that's where we're headed." Mr. Weasley pointed ahead of them, where a large black mass rose beyond the village of Ottery St. Catchpole.

"What sort of objects are Portkeys?" said Harry curiously.

"Well, they can be anything," Remus answered in the same voice he had used when teaching. "Unobtrusive things, obviously, so Muggles don't go picking them up and playing with them . . . stuff they'll just think is litter. . . ."

The fourteen of them trudged down the dark, dank lane toward the village, the silence broken only by their footsteps. The sky lightened very slowly as they made their way through the village, its inky blackness diluting to deepest blue. Lucy, because her hands had gotten cold, had grabbed Remus' and shoved it in his jacket pocket.

Mr. Weasley kept checking his watch.

They didn't have breath to spare for talking as they began to climb Stoatshead Hill, stumbling occasionally in hidden rabbit holes, slipping on thick black tufts of grass.

"Whew," painted Mr. Weasley, taking off his glasses and wiping them on his sweater. "Well, we've made good time — we've got ten minutes. . . ."

Hermione came over the crest of the hill last, clutching a stitch in her side.

"Now we just need the Portkey," said Mr. Weasley, replacing his glasses and squinting around at the ground. "It won't be big. . . . Come on . . ."

Lucy and Tahani looked towards the east as the rest of them began to spread out. They had only been at it for a couple of minutes, however, when a shout rent the still air.

"Over here, Arthur! Over here, son, we've got it!" Two tall figures were silhouetted against the starry sky on the other side of the hilltop.

"Amos!" said Mr. Weasley, smiling as he strode over to the man who had shouted. The rest of them followed. Mr. Weasley was shaking hands with a ruddy-faced wizard with a scrubby brown beard, who was holding a moldy-looking old boot in his other hand.

"This is Amos Diggory, everyone," said Mr. Weasley. "He works for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. And I think you know his son, Cedric?" Lucy did know Cedric Diggory as he had been the Hufflepuff quidditch Captain the year before.

"Hi," said Cedric, looking around at them all. Everybody said hi back except Fred and George, who merely nodded. They had never quite forgiven Cedric for beating their team, Gryffindor, in the first Quidditch match of the previous year.

"Long walk, Arthur?" Cedric's father asked.

"Not too bad," said Mr. Weasley. "We live just on the other side of the village there. You?"

"Had to get up at two, didn't we, Ced? I tell you, I'll be glad when he's got his Apparition test. Still . . . not complaining . . . Quidditch World Cup, wouldn't miss it for a sackful of Galleons — and the tickets cost about that. Mind you, looks like I got off easy. . . ." Amos Diggory peered good-naturedly around at the three Weasley boys, Meiri, Harry, Theo and Tahani, Hermione, Opehlia, and Ginny. And then at Remus and Sirius and Lucy; his eyes sparkled at the ladder two in a way that made Lucy's gut clench.

"Are all these yours Arthur?" He wondered.

"Oh no, only redheads—well sort of, that Red head," said Mr. Weasley, pointing out his Meiri, "Is my niece. This is Hermione, friend of Ron — and Harry, another friend moon was still out.—"

"Merlin's beard," said Amos Diggory, his eyes widening. "Harry? Harry Potter?"

"Er — yeah," said Harry and Sirius stepped up and placed a hand on his shoulder. Amos Diggory smiled brightly at Sirius.

"And your Sirius Black, and his sister Lucy," Amos Diggory said and Remus's grip on Lucy's hand together retaining Lucy from punching the man.

Sirius Blacks sister; that was all she was ever going to be wasn't it? Mass murders sister. Escaped convicts sister, wrongly convicted actual war heros sister. Never just Lucy Black.

"Ced's talked about you two, of course," said Amos Diggory. "Told us all about playing against you last year. . . . I said to him, I said — Ced, that'll be something to tell your grandchildren, that will. . . . You beat Harry Potter! You were taught by a professional quidditch player!"

"Yes, but you didn't fall off, did you?" roared Amos genially, slapping his son on his back. "Always modest, our Ced, always the gentleman . . . but the best man won, I'm sure Harry would say the same, wouldn't you, eh? One falls off his broom, one stays on, you don't need to be a genius to tell which one's the better flier!"

"Falling off a broom in loo of Dementors doesn't mean Harry's any less of a flyer Mr. Diggory," Lucy snapped.

"Of course," Amos Diggory waved, "But you called the match didn't you, Hufflepuff won that one."

"Yes because your son caught the snitch not because Harry was almost killed!" Lucy took a step forward only for Mr. Weasley to step in front of her.

"Must be nearly time," said Mr. Weasley quickly, pulling out his watch again. "Do you know whether we're waiting for any more, Amos?"

"No, the Lovegoods have been there for a week already and the Fawcetts couldn't get tickets," said Mr. Diggory. "There aren't any more of us in this area, are there?"

"Not that I know of," said Mr. Weasley. "Yes, it's a minute off. . . . We'd better get ready. . . ."

He looked around at the children,

"You just need to touch the Portkey, that's all, a finger will do —" With difficulty, owing to their bulky backpacks, the nine of them crowded around the old boot held out by Amos Diggory. They all stood there, in a tight circle, as a chill breeze swept over the hilltop. Nobody spoke. It suddenly occurred to Lucy how odd this would look if a Muggle were to walk up here now . . . a group of people, four of them grown men, clutching this manky old boot in the semidarkness, waiting. . . .

"Three . . ." muttered Mr. Weasley, one eye still on his watch, "two . . . one . . ."

It happened immediately.

Lucy and Remus, and the other adults, unlike the children landed on their feet.

"Seven past five from Stoatshead Hill," said a voice; in front of the staggering group were a pair of tired and grumpy-looking wizards, one of whom was holding a large gold watch, the other a thick roll of parchment and quill. Both were dressed as Muggles, though very inexpertly: The man with the watch wore a tweed suit with thigh-length galoshes; his colleague, a kilt and a poncho.

"Morning, Basil," said Mr. Weasley, picking up the boot and handing it to the kilted wizard, who threw it into a large box of used Portkeys beside him; the box contained objects like an old newspaper, an empty can, and a punctured football.

"Hello there, Arthur," said Basil wearily. "Not on duty, eh? It's all right for some. . . . We've been here all night. . . . You'd better get out of the way, we've got a big party coming in from the Black Forest at five-fifteen. Hang on, I'll find your campsite. . . . Weasley . . . Weasley . . ." He consulted his parchment list. "About a quarter of a mile's walk over there, first field you come to. Site manager's called Mr. Roberts. Diggory . . . second field . . . ask for Mr. Payne."

"And Black?" Lucy wondered stepping up from besides Mr. Weasley. The wizard Basil blinked at Lucy before he flipped through his parchment list.

"Three tents down from Weasley, next to Baggins and Brandybuck."

"Thanks, Basil," said Mr. Weasley, and he beckoned everyone to follow him. They set off across the deserted moor, unable to make out much through the mist. After about twenty minutes, a small stone cottage next to a gate swam into view. Beyond it, ghostly shapes of hundreds and hundreds of tents, rising up the gentle slope of a large field toward a dark wood on the horizon. Most of the group— neither Lucy nor Sirius nor the twins did, and Harrys was nearly practically inaudible —said good-bye to the Diggorys and approached the cottage door.

A man was standing in the doorway, looking out at the tents. Lucy knew that out of all the people for the next several miles he was the only muggle with no knowledge of the magical world.

"Morning!" said Mr. Weasley brightly.

"Morning," said the Muggle.

"Would you be Mr. Roberts?"

"Aye, I would," said Mr. Roberts. "And who're you?"

"Weasley and Black — three tents, booked a couple of days ago?"

"Aye," said Mr. Roberts, consulting a list tacked to the door.

"You've got a space up by the wood there. Just the one night?" While the world cup could on for days the Hogwarts term started only a few days latter which had cause Lucy and Mr. Weasley to come to a decision; they would only stay the night and if the cup wasn't over by then then they would take the kids back and forth until school started back up.

"That's it," said Mr. Weasley.

"You'll be paying now, then?" said Mr. Roberts.

"Ah — right — certainly —" said Mr. Weasley. He and Lucy retreated a short distance from the cottage and beckoned Tahani, and Hermione Harry toward him.

"Help me, Harry," he muttered, pulling a roll of Muggle money from his pocket and starting to peel the notes apart. "This one's a — a — a ten? Ah yes, I see the little number on it now. . . . So this is a five?"

"A twenty," Harry corrected him in an undertone, uncomfortably aware of Mr. Roberts trying to catch every word.

"Ah yes, so it is. . . . I don't know, these little bits of paper . . ."

"You foreign?" said Mr. Roberts as Mr. Weasley returned with the correct notes.

"Foreign?" repeated Mr. Weasley, puzzled. Remus and Lucy shared a look and Sirius rubbed the space between his brows with his thumb and index finger.

"You're not the first one who's had trouble with money," said Mr. Roberts, scrutinizing Mr. Weasley closely. "I had two try and pay me with great gold coins the size of hubcaps ten minutes ago."

"Did you really?" said Mr. Weasley nervously.

Mr. Roberts rummaged around in a tin for some change.

"Never been this crowded," he said suddenly, looking out over the misty field again. "Hundreds of pre-bookings. People usually just turn up. . . ."

"Is that right?" said Mr. Weasley, his hand held out for his change, but Mr. Roberts didn't give it to him. I wonder if they always have this problem, Lucy wondered. She had never gone to a Quidditch game as a spectator before and whilst each team had their own magically concealed stadium there were campsites for when games ran long.

"Aye," he said thoughtfully. "People from all over. Loads of foreigners. And not just foreigners. Weirdos, you know? There's a bloke walking 'round in a kilt and a poncho."

"Shouldn't he?" said Mr. Weasley anxiously.

"It's like some sort of . . . I dunno . . . like some sort of rally," said Mr. Roberts. "They all seem to know each other. Like a big party." At that moment, a wizard in plus-fours appeared out of thin air next to Mr. Roberts's front door.

"Obliviate!" he said sharply, pointing his wand at Mr. Roberts. Instantly, Mr. Roberts's eyes slid out of focus, his brows unknitted, and a look of dreamy unconcern fell over his face.

"A map of the campsite for you," Mr. Roberts said placidly to Mr. Weasley. "And your change."

"Thanks very much," said Mr. Weasley.

The wizard in plus-fours accompanied them toward the gate to the campsite. He looked exhausted: His chin was blue with stubble and there were deep purple shadows under his eyes. Once out of earshot of Mr. Roberts, he muttered to Mr. Weasley, "Been having a lot of trouble with him. Needs a Memory Charm ten times a day to keep him happy. And Ludo Bagman's not helping. Trotting around talking about Bludgers and Quaffles at the top of his voice, not a worry about anti-Muggle security. Blimey, I'll be glad when this is over. See you later, Arthur." He Disapparated.

"I thought Mr. Bagman was Head of Magical Games and Sports," said Ginny, looking surprised. "He should know better than to talk about Bludgers near Muggles, shouldn't he?"

"He should," said Mr. Weasley, smiling, and leading them through the gates into the campsite, "but Ludo's always been a bit . . . well . . . lax about security. You couldn't wish for a more enthusiastic head of the sports department though. He played Quidditch for England himself, you know. And he was the best Beater the Wimbourne Wasps ever had."

"That's only cause the Wasps suck," Lucy said and while the kids laughed, and Remus nudged her in the ribs Mr. Weasley rolled his eyes.

"You're only saying that because one of their players broke your nose."

"They broke my nose because I said they have no talent," Lucy respond and Mr. Weasley in a fatherly way at made her smile, laughed at her, clapping her on the shoulder.

They trudged up the misty field between long rows of tents. Most looked almost ordinary; their owners had clearly tried to make them as Muggle-like as possible, but had slipped up by adding chimneys, or bellpulls, or weather vanes. However, here and there was a tent so obviously magical that Lucy could hardly be surprised that Mr. Roberts was getting suspicious. Halfway up the field stood an extravagant confection of striped silk like a miniature palace, with several live peacocks tethered at the entrance.

A little farther on they passed a tent that had three floors and several turrets; and a short way beyond that was a tent that had a front garden attached, complete with birdbath, sundial, and fountain.

"Ah, here we are, look, this is us," said Mr. Weasley. They had reached the very edge of the wood at the top of the field, and here was an empty space, with a small sign hammered into the ground that read weezly. Three tents down Lucy could spot their space.

Remus had been carrying the tent in his knapsack and while it was an ordinary looking tent, the outside was a shimmering purple and blue color scheme but still contained two bathrooms, a kitchen, five bedrooms and radio.

"Couldn't have a better spot!" said Mr. Weasley happily. "The field is just on the other side of the wood there, we're as close as we could be." He hoisted his backpack from his shoulders. "Right," he said excitedly, "no magic allowed, strictly speaking, not when we're out in these numbers on Muggle land. We'll be putting these tents up by hand! Shouldn't be too difficult. . . . Muggles do it all the time. . . . Here, Hermione, where do you reckon we should start?"

Lucy looked to her lot; to Remus and Sirius and Harry, Theo and Tahani.

"We should start setting up as well," she said and they walked over to the small sign that had been hammered into the ground. Unlike how the weasleys sign had been spelt wrong Black was a simple enough name to get right.

Two hours later the tents were up; Lucy had never been camping, neither had Harry, Theo, Sirius or Tahani and whilst Remus had never gone actual camping there had been some time during the war where he lived in the woods so he had remembered enough it had taken them long enough Lucy felt slightly embarrassed for no other reason then setting up a tent should have been simple enough.

Lucy, after everyone had put their bags on their beds and walked over the Weasleys tent stayed behind for a moment; Amos Diggory's words still rattled around. Sirius Blacks sister; she was a murderer in her own right, an heiress, a famous quidditch player, an alright cook and for a short time an instructor, she was more than just a sister. She was.

And if she wanted anyone to call her someones sister she wished she were Regulus' sister; she wished, not for the first time, that Reggie was alive and him and Claudia had gotten married and had their three children and that she is his sister and aunt to his children.

She wished-Lucy shut her eyes and blew a hot breath of air out her nose. She walked out of the tent and into the Weasleys where Mr. Weasley, mopping his bald patch with a handkerchief and peered in at the four bunk beds that stood in the bedroom. "I borrowed this from Perkins at the office. Doesn't camp much anymore, poor fellow, he's got lumbago."

The tent reminded Lucy of an old-fashioned, three-room flat, complete with bathroom and kitchen. Oddly enough, it was furnished in exactly the same sort of style as Mrs. Figg's house: There were crocheted covers on the mismatched chairs and a strong smell of cats.

He picked up the dusty kettle and peered inside it. "We'll need water. . . ."

"There's a tap marked on this map the Muggle gave us," said Ron, "It's on the other side of the field."

"Well, why don't you and Meiri and, Harry, and Hermione go and get us some water then" — Mr. Weasley handed over the kettle and a couple of saucepans — and the rest of us will get some wood for a fire?"

"But we've got an oven," said Ron. "Why can't we just —"

"Ron, anti-Muggle security!" said Mr. Weasley, his face shining with anticipation; Lucy doubted Me. Weasley cared more about acting like a muggle rather than the security measures. "When real Muggles camp, they cook on fires outdoors. I've seen them at it!"

Theo looked at Lucy, "Can I go with Meiri and Harry?"

"Sure," Lucy said and then handed him a small pouch of galleons, "Have fun, the money in there is for Ron, Meiri and Hermione to. Don't get lost."

Once they were gone and the twins and Ophelia had wandered off after getting a pile of kindling, leaving just Tahani and Ginny with the adults the two girls turned to Lucy.

"Hey Lucy?" Ginny wondered as Remus tried to help Mr. Weasley light the flint rocks, Sirius stood next to them flipping his lighter open and closed.

"Yeah Gin?"

"Why did you start playing Quidditch?" Lucy looked at the younger girl. She had known Ginny for close to thirteen years— practically the girls whole life —but Ginny Weasley had never once asked that question before. She had asked why Lucy played for the Tornadoes or why play seeker when she was just as good as a Chaser but never why she played.

"Well," Lucy started to answer the loaded question because how do you tell a thirteen year old girl that you only started to do what your careers because it made you feel closer to your monster of a brother? "My brother, Regulus, I've told you about him right?"

Both Ginny and Tahani nodded.

"When he was in school he played as the Slytherin Seeker, and when I was a kid he was the one who taught me how to fly. After his death flying made me feel closer to him, and then my second year there were tryout for his position and Bill and encouraged me to try out and I don't know?" Lucy shrugged, "Once I started playing I couldn't imagine ever doing anything else." Both girls nodded.

"We want to play, professionally that is," Ginny told her, motioning to Tahani.

"You do?" Lucy wasn't surprised to hear that, all either girl spoke about when they were in Tahanis room or in the backyard was Quidditch. "Why?"

"Because I love it," Ginny said and Tahani shifted next to her, "I can't see myself in ten years working at the Ministry like dad or at home like mum, you know?" Lucy nodded. She then looked at Tahani,

"I'm free when I play. When I was up on the broom, during the game I wasn't thinking about my mother or father or my sister, I was just focused on winning, on something I wanted." Lucy wrapped her arms around the girls shoulders.

"You two," Lucy said, "Are going to make brilliant quidditch players."

"Eriqa!" Mr. Weasley shouted as he shook off the flames on the cuff of his shirt, I did it!" Sirius laughed at Remus' tired face.

**…**

The twins amd Ophelia had arrived back at the site before Harry and the others; and as they waited for the fire to ready both Mr. Weasley and Lucy pointed people out to the group.

"That was Cuthbert Mockridge, Head of the Goblin Liaison Office. . . ." Mr. Weasley pointed out a thin man wearing a tweed coat and jeans.

"That's Dia Llewellyn, he's a beater for the Welsh Team, Caerphilly Catapults.." LUcy paid to them pointing out a burly man with a flat knows and thinned lips.

"Here comes Gilbert Wimple; he's with the Committee on Experimental Charms; he's had those horns for a while now. . . ." GIlbert Wimple had long purple horns growing from his head and turquoise spots littering his skin.

"That's hector Lemont, he plays for England… his father's the singer Stubby Boardman…."

"Hello, Arnie . . . Arnold Peasegood, he's an Obliviator — member of the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, you know. . . . and that's Bode and Croaker . . . they're Unspeakables. . . ." Mr. Weasley said.

"They're what?" Tahani wondered

"From the Department of Mysteries, top secret, no idea what they get up to," Meiri answered. She sat between Theo and Ron, "My mum worked in that Department," she tacked on more quietly.

At last, nearly an hour later, the fire was ready, and they had just started cooking eggs and sausages when Bill, Charlie, Mia, and Percy came strolling out of the woods toward them.

"Just Apparated, Dad," said Percy loudly. "Ah, excellent, lunch!" Mia stole a sausage off of Lucy's plate only for Bill to steal and Egg and Charlie to take his plate. They were halfway through their plates of eggs and sausages when Mr. Weasley jumped to his feet, waving and grinning at a man who was striding towards them.

"Aha!" he said. "The man of the moment! Ludo!"

Ludo Bagman was wearing long Quidditch robes in thick horizontal stripes of bright yellow and black. An enormous picture of a wasp was splashed across his chest. He had the look of a powerfully built man gone slightly to seed; the robes were stretched tightly across a large belly he surely had not had in the days when he had played Quidditch for England. His nose was squashed but his round blue eyes, short blond hair, and rosy complexion made him look like a very overgrown schoolboy.

"Ahoy there!" Bagman called happily. He was walking as though he had springs attached to the balls of his feet and was plainly in a state of wild excitement.

Lucy on the other hand wilted into Remus' side. She knew that with the tickets came having to see the man but she had hoped he would forget about her, that he would see another woman and become enamoured enough to distract himself from her.

"Arthur, old man," he puffed as he reached the campfire, "What a day, eh? What a day! Could we have asked for more perfect weather? A cloudless night coming . . . and hardly a hiccough in the arrangements. . . . Not much for me to do!"

Behind him, a group of haggard-looking Ministry wizards rushed past, pointing at the distant evidence of some sort of a magical fire that was sending violet sparks twenty feet into the air.

Percy hurried forward with his hand outstretched. Apparently his disapproval of the way Ludo Bagman ran his department did not prevent him from wanting to make a good impression.

He would have made a brilliant Slytherin, Lucy thought.

"Ah — yes," said Mr. Weasley, grinning, "This is my son Percy. He's just started at the Ministry — and this is Fred — no, George, sorry — that's Fred — Bill, Charlie, Ron — my daughter, Ginny — mt niece Meiri, and Ron's friends, Hermione Granger and Harry Potter."

Bagman did the smallest of double takes when he heard Harry's name, and his eyes performed the familiar flick upward to the scar on Harry's forehead.

"You know Lucy of course," Mr. Weasley said and Lucy having been pointed out slowly stood up. Remus stood up with her, his arm wrapped around her waist. "Her brother Siriius, her boyfriend Remus Lupin and their lot, Theo and Tahani. Everyone," Mr. Weasley continued, "this is Ludo Bagman, you know who he is, it's thanks to him and Lucy we've got such good tickets —"

Bagman beamed and waved his hand as if to say it had been nothing.

"Fancy a flutter on the match, Arthur?" he said eagerly, jingling what seemed to be a large amount of gold in the pockets of his yellow-and-black robes. "I've already got Roddy Pontner betting me Bulgaria will score first — I offered him nice odds, considering Ireland's front three are the strongest I've seen in years — and little Agatha Timms has put up half shares in her eel farm on a weeklong match."

"Oh . . . go on then," said Mr. Weasley. "Let's see . . . a Galleon on Ireland to win?"

"A Galleon?" Ludo Bagman looked slightly disappointed, but recovered himself. "Very well, very well . . . any other takers? Lucy?"

"You know league players can't bet," Lucy told him and so Ludo turned to Sirius.

"I've been too out of the loop to know whos good," Sirius told the man.

"They're a bit young to be gambling," said Mr. Weasley. "Molly wouldn't like —"

"We'll bet thirty-seven Galleons, fifteen Sickles, three Knuts," said Fred as he and George quickly pooled all their money, "that Ireland wins — but Viktor Krum gets the Snitch. Oh and we'll throw in a fake wand."

"You don't want to go showing Mr. Bagman rubbish like that —" Percy hissed, but Bagman didn't seem to think the wand was rubbish at all; on the contrary, his boyish face shone with excitement as he took it from Fred, and when the wand gave a loud squawk and turned into a rubber chicken, Bagman roared with laughter.

"Excellent! I haven't seen one that convincing in years! I'd pay five Galleons for that!" Percy froze in an attitude of stunned disapproval. Lucy shared a look with the younger boy— man —and smiled.

"Boys," said Mr. Weasley under his breath, "I don't want you betting. . . . That's all your savings. . . . Your mother —"

"Don't be a spoilsport, Arthur!" boomed Ludo Bagman, rattling his pockets excitedly. "They're old enough to know what they want! You reckon Ireland will win but Krum Will get the Snitch? Not a chance, boys, not a chance. . . . I'll give you excellent odds on that one. . . . We'll add five Galleons for the funny wand, then, shall we. . . ." Mr. Weasley looked on helplessly as Ludo Bagman whipped out a notebook and quill and began jotting down the twins' names.

"Cheers," said George, taking the slip of parchment Bagman handed him and tucking it away carefully. Bagman turned most cheerfully back to Mr. Weasley.

"Couldn't do me a brew, I suppose? I'm keeping an eye out for Barty Crouch. My Bulgarian opposite number's making difficulties, and I can't understand a word he's saying. Barty'll be able to sort it out. He speaks about a hundred and fifty languages."

"Mr. Crouch?" said Percy, suddenly abandoning his look of poker-stiff disapproval and positively writhing with excitement.

"He speaks over two hundred! Mermish and Gobbledegook and Troll . . ."

"Anyone can speak Troll," said Fred dismissively. "All you have to do is point and grunt."

Percy threw Fred an extremely nasty look and stoked the fire vigorously to bring the kettle back to the boil.

"Any news of Bertha Jorkins yet, Ludo?" Mr. Weasley asked as Bagman settled himself down on the grass beside them all.

"Not a dicky bird," said Bagman comfortably. "But she'll turn up. Poor old Bertha . . . memory like a leaky cauldron and no sense of direction. Lost, you take my word for it. She'll wander back into the office sometime in October, thinking it's still July."

"What's happened to Bertha Jorkins?" Sirius wondered. Ludos eyes brightened under Sirius' attention.

"You know Bertha Jorkins?" Bagman wondered.

"Moony and I went to school with her—she had a bit of a crush on you Moony didn't she?" Sirius grinned roguishly. Lucy, with a mischievous smile turned to Remus.

"I thought you didn't date in school?"

"I didn't."

"Lies!" Sirius cheered.

"I snogged once or twice," Remus said.

"Was that one time when Jamies and I found you two in a broom closet together?" The twins laughed loudly as Hermione looked horrified that a Professor had been found in a broom closet, even as a teenager. Harry, THeo and Tahani all bit back a smile while Lucy poked Remus' cheek.

"Uh-ho, looks like Mr. Prefect here wasn't so perfect." Bagman, almost as if he were hoping for a fight deflated slightly at the sight of Lucy's large, shit-eatting grin. Remus looked at Lucy without any actual malice.

"I hate you," he muttered.

"No you don't," Lucy muttered and quickly, for just a second Remus brought his lips down to hers.

Shifting away from the sight, Mr. Weasley suggested tentatively as Percy handed Bagman his tea. "You don't think it might be time to send someone to look for her?"

"Barty Crouch keeps saying that," said Bagman, his round eyes widening innocently, "but we really can't spare anyone at the moment. Oh — talk of the devil! Barty!"

A wizard had just Apparated at their fireside, and he could not have made more of a contrast with Ludo Bagman, sprawled on the grass in his old Wasp robes. Barty Crouch was a stiff, upright, elderly man, dressed in an impeccably crisp suit and tie. The parting in his short gray hair was almost unnaturally straight, and his narrow toothbrush mustache looked as though he trimmed it using a slide rule. His shoes were very highly polished.

That was the first time since their talk at the Ministry Lucy had seen Barty Crouch senior. Sirius looked at the man contemptuously. It took all of half a second for Lucy to remember it was Barty Crouch who had sentenced him to a lifetime of Azkaban without a trail.

"Pull up a bit of grass, Barty," said Ludo brightly, patting the ground beside him.

"No thank you, Ludo," said Crouch, and there was a bit of impatience in his voice. "I've been looking for you everywhere. The Bulgarians are insisting we add another twelve seats to the Top Box."

"Oh is that what they're after?" said Bagman. "I thought the chap was asking to borrow a pair of tweezers. Bit of a strong accent."

"Mr. Crouch!" said Percy breathlessly, sunk into a kind of half bow that made him look like a hunchback. "Would you like a cup of tea?"

"Oh," said Mr. Crouch, looking over at Percy in mild surprise.

"Yes — thank you, Weatherby." Fred and George choked into their own cups. Percy, very pink around the ears, busied himself with the kettle

"Weasley," Lucy corrected. Startled Crouch looked at Lucy. "Percy's name is Weasley not Weatherby."

"Right, right of course. It's a pleasure to see you again Lady Black," Barty Crouch voiced. He didn't spare a look at Sirius nor at Remus who still had his arm around Lucy.

"The same Sir Crouch, though you look rather run down."

"Yes well running a whole department can do that to you, speaking of, I've been wanting a word with you too, Arthur," said Mr. Crouch, his sharp eyes falling upon Mr. Weasley. "Ali Bashir's on the warpath. He wants a word with you about your embargo on flying carpets."

Mr. Weasley heaved a deep sigh. "I sent him an owl about that just last week. If I've told him once I've told him a hundred times: Carpets are defined as a Muggle Artifact by the Registry of Proscribed Charmable Objects, but will he listen?"

"I doubt it," said Mr. Crouch, accepting a cup from Percy. "He's desperate to export here."

"Well, they'll never replace brooms in Britain, will they?" said Bagman.

"Ali thinks there's a niche in the market for a family vehicle," said Mr. Crouch. "I remember my grandfather had an Axminster that could seat twelve — but that was before carpets were banned, of course." He spoke as though he wanted to leave nobody in any doubt that all his ancestors had abided strictly by the law.

"So, been keeping busy, Barty?" said Bagman breezily.

"Fairly," said Mr. Crouch dryly. "Organizing Portkeys across five continents is no mean feat, Ludo."

"I expect you'll both be glad when this is over?" said Mr. Weasley. Ludo Bagman looked shocked.

"Glad! Don't know when I've had more fun. . . . Still, it's not as though we haven't got anything to look forward to, eh, Barty? Eh? Plenty left to organize, eh?"

Mr. Crouch raised his eyebrows at Bagman.

"We agreed not to make the announcement until all the details —"

"Oh details!" said Bagman, waving the word away like a cloud of midges. "They've signed, haven't they? They've agreed, haven't they? I bet you anything these kids will know soon enough anyway. I mean, it's happening at Hogwarts —"

"Ludo, we need to meet the Bulgarians, you know," said Mr. Crouch sharply, cutting Bagman's remarks short. "Thank you for the tea, West— Weasley." He pushed his undrunk tea back at Percy and waited for Ludo to rise; Bagman struggled to his feet, swigging down the last of his tea, the gold in his pockets chinking merrily.

"See you all later!" he said. "You'll be up in the Top Box with me — I'm commentating!" He waved, Barty Crouch nodded curtly, and both of them Disapparated.

"What's happening at Hogwarts, Dad?" said Fred at once.

"What were they talking about?"

"You'll find out soon enough," said , smiling.

"It's classified information, until such time as the Ministry decides to release it," said Percy stiffly.

"Mr. Crouch was quite right not to disclose it."

"Oh shut up, Weatherby," said Fred.

Lucy turned to Bill, Mia and Charlie. "Ten Galleons says I get it whats happening out of Bagman before the games over." Mia snorted.

"Before the first injury."

A sense of excitement rose like a palpable cloud over the campsite as the afternoon wore on. By dusk, the still summer air itself seemed to be quivering with anticipation, and as darkness spread like a curtain over the thousands of waiting wizards, the last vestiges of pretence disappeared: the Ministry seemed to have bowed to the inevitable and stopped fighting the signs of blatant magic now breaking out everywhere.

Salesmen were Apparating every few feet, carrying trays and pushing carts full of extraordinary merchandise. There were luminous rosettes — green for Ireland, red for Bulgaria — which were squealing the names of the players, pointed green hats bedecked with dancing shamrocks, Bulgarian scarves adorned with lions that really roared, flags from both countries that played their national anthems as they were waved; there were tiny models of Firebolts that really flew, and collectible figures of famous players, which strolled across the palm of your hand, preening themselves.

Once more the kids seemed to disperse amongst the camp sites. Birch, Merwyn Fenwick and his wife showed up carrying their son. Gadrel and Mueral as well.

"Lewinsky," Mural slugged the curly haired dragonologist in the arm.

"Snyde." Lucy turned to Birch.

"Is the rest of the team here?"

"All but Ethel," Birch grumbled.

"She's the girl that took over when Lucy was banned right?" Bill wondered as Mr. Weasley and Merwyn traded parenting stories. Mia and Mrs. Fenwick, Michelle, spoke animatedly about creatures.

"Yeah, she was also the girl that lost our spot to Ireland," Birch grumbled. Lucy patted her captain on the shoulder."

"There-there captain, you can always murder her." Remus barked out a laugh.

"You really need to stop saying murder." Lucy rolled her eyes and nuzzled her head against the underside of Remus' jaw.

"Murder a Death Eater once and you loose the right to say the word. What bullshit."

**…**

Mia, Bill, Charlie, and Ginny were all sporting green rosettes too. Like Ron, Meiri and Tahani were wearing dancing shamrock hates and Mr. Weasley was carrying an Irish flag. Lucy, hating Lynch, sported a large hat with a roaring Lion on it and Remus' face was covered in red and white paint. Sirius wore a flag in his long hair and Tahani wore, on top of her head, a long pipe hate that every so often opened to play the Bulgrian national anthem. Fred and George had no souvenirs as they had given Bagman all their gold. And then a deep, booming gong sounded somewhere beyond the woods, and at once, green and red lanterns blazed into life in the trees, lighting a path to the field.

"It's time!" said Mr. Weasley, looking as excited as any of them. "Come on, let's go!"

Clutching their purchases, Mr. Weasley in the lead, they all hurried into the wood, following the lantern-lit trail. They could hear the sounds of thousands of people moving around them, shouts and laughter, snatches of singing. The atmosphere of feverish excitement was highly infectious; Lucy couldn't stop grinning. They walked through the wood for twenty minutes, talking and joking loudly, every so often Remus would bear down upon Lucy and press a kiss to her lips, leaving the Seeker a puddled mess of emotions, until at last they emerged on the other side and found themselves in the shadow of a gigantic stadium.

Lucy could see only a fraction of the immense gold walls surrounding the field, though she could tell that ten cathedrals would fit comfortably inside it.

"Seats a hundred thousand," said Mr. Weasley, spotting the awestruck look on Harry's face. "Ministry task force of five hundred have been working on it all year. Muggle Repelling Charms on every inch of it. Every time Muggles have got anywhere near here all year, they've suddenly remembered urgent appointments and had to dash away again . . . bless them," he added fondly, leading the way toward the nearest entrance, which was already surrounded by a swarm of shouting witches and wizards.

"Prime seats!" said the Ministry witch at the entrance when she checked their tickets. "Top Box! Straight upstairs, Arthur, and as high as you can go."

The stairs into the stadium were carpeted in rich purple. They clambered upward with the rest of the crowd, which slowly filtered away through doors into the stands to their left and party of people kept climbing, and at last they reached the top of the staircase and found themselves in a small box, set at the highest point of the stadium and situated exactly halfway between the golden goal posts. About twenty purple-and-gilt chairs stood in two rows here, and Harry, filing into the front seats with the Weasleys, looked down upon a scene the likes of which he could never have imagined.

A hundred thousand witches and wizards were taking their places in the seats, which rose in levels around the long oval field. Everything was suffused with a mysterious golden light, which seemed to come from the stadium itself. The field looked smooth as velvet from their lofty position. At either end of the field stood three goal hoops, fifty feet high; right opposite them, almost at eye level, was a gigantic blackboard. Gold writing kept dashing across it as though an invisible giant's hand were scrawling upon the blackboard and then wiping it off again; watching it, Lucy saw that it was flashing advertisements across the field.

The Bluebottle: A Broom for All the Family — safe, reliable, and with Built-in Anti-Burglar Buzzer . . . Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover: No Pain, No Stain! . . . Gladrags Wizardwear — London, Paris, Hogsmeade . . ."

Lucy stood behind Harry as he surveyed the room, Remus, with a peck to the corner of her mouth moved from her side to stand next to Sirius who was practically buzzing; though Lucy wasn't sure if it was because of excitement or anxiousness as his hands constantly wrung themselves together.

Lucy spotted, next to the last seat, in the row behind them, a tiny creature sitting in the second from last seat at the end of the row behind them. The creature, whose legs were so short they stuck out in front of it on the chair, was wearing a tea towel draped like a toga, and it had its face hidden in its hands.

A house elf Lucy's brows raised as she looked at the quivering elf.

"Dobby?" said Harry incredulously.

The tiny creature looked up and stretched its fingers, revealing enormous brown eyes and a nose the exact size and shape of a large tomato.

"Did sir just call me Dobby?" squeaked the elf curiously from between its fingers. Lucy blinked at Harry and then at Sirius who looked at his godson. Meiri, Ron and Hermione spun around in their seats to look. Even Mr. Weasley looked around in interest.

"Sorry," Harry told the elf, "I just thought you were someone I knew." Lucy remembered Harry and Ron, the day the former had gotten his Firebolt back, telling her all of the house elf named Dobby, who constantly tired to endanger Harry's life in order to save it.

"But I knows Dobby too, sir!" squeaked the elf. She was shielding her face, as though blinded by light, though the Top Box was not brightly lit. "My name is Winky, sir — and you, sir —" Her dark brown eyes widened to the size of side plates as they rested upon Harry's scar. "You is surely Harry Potter!"

"Yeah, I am," said Harry.

"But Dobby talks of you all the time, sir!" she said, lowering her hands very slightly and looking awestruck.

"How is he?" said Harry. "How's freedom suiting him?"

"Ah, sir," said Winky, shaking her head, "ah sir, meaning no disrespect, sir, but I am not sure you did Dobby a favor, sir, when you are setting him free."

"Why?" said Harry, taken aback. "What's wrong with him?"

"Freedom is going to Dobby's head, sir," said Winky sadly.

"Ideas above his station, sir. Can't get another position, sir."

"Why not?" said Harry. Winky lowered her voice by a half-octave and whispered, "He is wanting paying for his work, sir."

"Paying?" said Harry blankly. "Well — why shouldn't he be paid?" Winky looked quite horrified at the idea and closed her fingers slightly so that her face was half-hidden again.

"House-elves is not paid, sir!" she said in a muffled squeak. "No, no, no. I says to Dobby, I says, go find yourself a nice family and settle down, Dobby. He is getting up to all sorts of high jinks, sir, what is unbecoming to a house-elf. You goes racketing around like this, Dobby, I says, and the next thing I hear you up in front of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, like some common goblin."

"Well, it's about time he had a bit of fun," said Harry.

"House-elves is not supposed to have fun, Harry Potter," said Winky firmly from behind her hands. "House-elves does what they are told. I is not liking heights at all, Harry Potter" — she

glanced toward the edge of the box and gulped — "but my master sends me to the Top Box and I comes, sir."

"Why's he sent you up here, if he knows you don't like heights?" said Harry, frowning.

"Master — master wants me to save him a seat, Harry Potter. He is very busy," said Winky, tilting her head toward the empty space beside her. "Winky is wishing she is back in master's tent, Harry Potter, but Winky does what she is told. Winky is a good House-elf." She gave the edge of the box another frightened look and hid her eyes completely again. Harry turned back to the others.

"Weird things, aren't they? I mean she's nicer than Kreature but still, bit weird, aren't they?" Ron muttered

"Dobby was weirder," said Harry fervently. Sirius having heard Harry and Rons conversation turned to them, leaning over Remus,

"A Cameras nicer than Kreature." Both boys snorted and nodded their heads. Ron pulled out his Omnioculars and started testing them, staring down into the crowd on the other side of the stadium.

"Wild!" he said, twiddling the replay knob on the side. "I can make that old bloke down there pick his nose again . . . and again . . . and again . . ."

Hermione, meanwhile, was skimming eagerly through her velvet covered, tasseled program.

" 'A display from the team mascots will precede the match,' " she read aloud and Lucy felt a thrill ran through her. Before her matches the coach would unleash a series of tornadoes, some of them played music and others were just made up of confieted that sprayed the spectators when they dispersed.

"Oh that's always worth watching," said Mr. Weasley. "National teams bring creatures from their native land, you know, to put on a bit of a show." The box filled gradually around them over the next half hour.

Mr. Weasley kept shaking hands with people who were obviously very important wizards. Percy jumped to his feet so often that he looked as though he were trying to sit on a hedgehog. When Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic himself, arrived, Percy bowed so low that his glasses fell off and shattered. Highly embarrassed, he repaired them with his wand and thereafter remained in his seat, throwing jealous looks at Harry, whom Cornelius Fudge had greeted like an old friend.

He also shook hands with Sirius and Lucy, and both Mr. Weasley and Bill; and even reluctantly once Lucy, with her head held high and a very Black tone in her voice introduced him to the Minister, shook hands with Remus.

"Harry Potter, you know," he told the Bulgarian minister loudly, who was wearing splendid robes of black velvet trimmed with gold and didn't seem to understand a word of English. "Harry Potter . . . oh come on now, you know who he is . . . the boy who survived You-Know-Who . . . you do know who he is —" Sirius glared at the Minister as The Bulgarian wizard suddenly spotted Harry's scar and started gabbling loudly and excitedly, pointing at it.

"Knew we'd get there in the end," said Fudge wearily to Harry. "I'm no great shakes at languages; I need Barty Crouch for this sort of thing. Ah, I see his house-elf's saving him a seat. . . . Good job too, these Bulgarian blighters have been trying to cadge all the best places . . . ah, and here's Lucius!"

Everyone in the box turned to look at the Malfoy family, Lucy, though hated Lucius and his son, cared for her cousin. Blacks stick together, above all else, that's what they were taught as children and why family members like Sirius and Andromeda who went against the ideals the family held in such high regard were thrown out, disowned and at one point, were killed for such treachery.

Lucy smiled at her cousin, who, for a moment before turning away with a tight look on her face, smiled back.

"Ah, Fudge," said Mr. Malfoy, holding out his hand as he reached the Minister of Magic. "How are you? I don't think you've met my wife, Narcissa? Or our son, Draco?"

"How do you do, how do you do?" said Fudge, smiling and bowing to Mrs. Malfoy. "And allow me to introduce you to Mr. Oblansk — Obalonsk — Mr. — well, he's the Bulgarian Minister of Magic, and he can't understand a word I'm saying anyway, so never mind. And let's see who else — Lady Black and Sirius — it must be wonderful to have the family together once more —" The Minister said; no one replied, Lucy loved her cousin but not her family and Sirius hated the lot of them, whilst Lucy wasn't quite sure how her cousin felt about her anymore knowing she was with a werewolf. Though Fudge didn't take notice either way. "You know Arthur Weasley, I daresay?"

It was a tense moment as Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy looked at each other.

"Good lord, Arthur," he said softly. "What did you have to sell to get seats in the Top Box? Surely your house wouldn't have fetched this much?" Lucy stepped forward away from Remus only for Bill to pull her back.

The last time Bill Weasley had seen Lucius Malfoy had been when Lucy had him under her boot at her mother's funeral.

Fudge, who wasn't listening, said, "Lucius has just given a very generous contribution to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Arthur. He's here as my guest."

"How — how nice," said Mr. Weasley, with a very strained smile. Mr. Malfoy's eyes had returned to Hermione, who went slightly pink, but started determinedly back at him. Lucy knew why her cousin-in-law was making such a face, why he looked so disgusted at just the sights of Hermione Granger, Tahani and Remus.

However, under the gaze of the Minister of Magic, Mr. Malfoy didn't dare say anything. He nodded sneeringly to Mr. Weasley and continued down the line to his seats. Draco shot Harry, Ron, and Hermione one contemptuous look, then settled himself between his mother and father.

"Slimy gits," Ron muttered as he, Harry, and Hermione turned to face the field again. Next moment, Ludo Bagman charged into the box.

"Everyone ready?" he said, his round face gleaming like a great, excited Edam. "Minister — ready to go?"

"Ready when you are, Ludo," said Fudge comfortably.

Ludo whipped out his wand, directed it at his own throat, and said "Sonorus!" and then spoke over the roar of sound that was now filling the packed stadium; his voice echoed over them, booming into every corner of the stands.

"Ladies and gentlemen . . . welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!" The spectators screamed and clapped. Thousands of flags waved, adding their discordant national anthems to the racket. The huge blackboard opposite them was wiped clear of its last message and now showed BULGARIA: 0, IRELAND: 0. "And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce . . . the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!"

The right-hand side of the stands, which was a solid block of scarlet, roared its approval.

"I wonder what they've brought," said Mr. Weasley, leaning forward in his seat. "Aaah!" He suddenly whipped off his glasses and polished them hurriedly on his robes. "Veela!"

"What are veel —?" But a hundred veela were now gliding out onto the field, and Harry's question was answered for him.

Veela were women— beautiful women —except that they weren't — they couldn't be — human. The music started, and the veela had started to dance. Lucy, though attracted to women didn't lean forward as Fred and the others did simply because she was a woman. Veelas, like sirens, were all about ensuring men, all about catching their prey and while Lucy's thoughts went fuzzy no one had to pull her back, unlike Ophelia who had to tug on Georges arm.

Lucy looked at Remus who sat back with his arms crossed and a funny look on his face; like he was holding back a fit of giggles. He turned to look at Lucy and the witch leaned over her heat and kissed him softly on the lips. The words I love you caught in her chest.

The music stopped. Harry blinked. He was standing up, and one of his legs was resting on the wall of the box. Next to him, Ron was frozen in an attitude that looked as though he were about to dive from a springboard. Angry yells were filling the stadium. The crowd didn't want the veela to go. Harry was with them; he would, of course, be supporting Bulgaria, and he wondered vaguely why he had a large green shamrock pinned to his chest. Ron, meanwhile, was absentmindedly shredding the shamrocks on his hat. Lucy, smiling slightly, leaned over to Ron and tugged the hat out of his hands.

"You'll be wanting that," she said, "once Ireland have had their say.

"Huh?" said Ron, staring open mouthed at the veela, who had now lined up along one side of the field. Hermione made a loud tutting noise. She reached up and pulled Harry back into his seat.

"Honestly!" she said.

"And now," roared Ludo Bagman's voice, "kindly put your wands in the air . . . for the Irish National Team Mascots!" Next moment, what seemed to be a great green-and-gold comet

came zooming into the stadium. It did one circuit of the stadium, then split into two smaller comets, each hurtling toward the goal posts. A rainbow arched suddenly across the field, connecting the two balls of light. The crowd oohed and aahed, as though at a fireworks display. Now the rainbow faded and the balls of light reunited and merged; they had formed a great shimmering shamrock, which rose up into the sky and began to soar over the stands.

Something like golden rain seemed to be falling from it —

"Excellent!" yelled Ron as the shamrock soared over them, and heavy gold coins rained from it, bouncing off their heads and seats. Squinting up at the shamrock, Harry realized that it was actually comprised of thousands of tiny little bearded men with red vests, each carrying a minute lamp of gold or green.

"Leprechauns!" said Mr. Weasley over the tumultuous applause of the crowd, many of whom were still fighting and rummaging around under their chairs to retrieve the gold.

"There you go," Ron yelled happily, stuffing a fistful of gold coins into Harry's hand, "for the Omnioculars! Now you've got to buy me a Christmas present, ha!" Lucy didn't bother to point out the gold would disappear sooner rather than later.

The great shamrock dissolved, the leprechauns drifted down onto the field on the opposite side from the veela, and settled themselves cross-legged to watch the match.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, kindly welcome — the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team! I give you — Dimitrov!" A scarlet-clad figure on a broomstick, moving so fast it was blurred, shot out onto the field from an entrance far below, to wild applause from the Bulgarian supporters.

"Ivanova!" A second scarlet-robed player zoomed out.

"Zograf! Levski! Vulchanov! Volkov! Aaaaaaand — Krum!"

"That's him, that's him!" yelled Ron, following Krum with his Omnioculars. Harry quickly focused his own. Viktor Krum was thin, dark, and sallow-skinned, with a large curved nose and thick black eyebrows. He looked like an overgrown bird of prey. It was hard to believe he was only eighteen.

Lucy felt a smile on her face as she looked at the young man; it was easy to remember when her first season cup final match had happened and she'd only been seventeen. It has been nerve racking; thrilling and sickening and Lucy had loved it. She was sure, though his face didn't covay it, Victor Krum loved it too.

"And now, please greet — the Irish National Quidditch Team!" yelled Bagman. "Presenting — Connolly! Ryan! Troy! Mullet! Moran! Quigley! Aaaaaand — Lynch!" Lucy frowned at the name and Bill snickering, wondered which one was Lynch. "And here, all the way from Egypt, our referee, acclaimed Chairwizard of the International Association of Quidditch, Hassan Mostafa!"

A small and skinny wizard, completely bald but with a mustache to rival the Monopoly man, wearing robes of pure gold to match the stadium, strode out onto the field. A silver whistle was protruding from under the mustache, and he was carrying a large wooden crate under one arm, his broomstick under the other. Mostafa mounted his broomstick and kicked the crate open — four balls burst into the air: the scarlet Quaffle, the two black Bludgers, and the minuscule, winged Golden Snitch. With a sharp blast on his whistle, Mostafa shot into the air after the balls.

"Theeeeeeeey're OFF!" screamed Bagman. "And it's Mullet! Troy! Moran! Dimitrov! Back to Mullet! Troy! Levski! Moran!" It was Quidditch as Lucy had never seen it played before. She had always been the one playing and watching it professionally made her heart wants to burst. I love this game!

The speed of the players was incredible — the Chasers were throwing the Quaffle to one another so fast that Bagman only had time to say their names as they pulled the Hawkshed attacking formation. Slightly ahead of Mullet and Moran, bearing down upon the Bulgarians, as Troy made as though to dart upward with the Quaffle, drawing away the Bulgarian Chaser, Ivanova he pulled a Porskoff ploy by dropping the Quaffle to Moran. One of the Bulgarian

Beaters, Volkov, swung hard at a passing Bludger with his small club, knocking it into Moran's path; Moran ducked to avoid the Bludger and dropped the Quaffle; and Levski, soaring beneath, caught it —

"TROY SCORES!" roared Bagman, and the stadium shuddered with a roar of applause and cheers. "Ten zero to Ireland!"

"What?" Harry yelled, looking wildly around through his Omnioculars. "But Levski's got the Quaffle!"

"Harry, if you're not going to watch at normal speed, you're going to miss things!" shouted Hermione, who was dancing up and down, waving her arms in the air while Troy did a lap of honor around the field. As the game played on Lucy did have to admit that the Irish Chasers were superb. They worked as a seamless team, their movements so well coordinated that they appeared to be reading one another's minds as they positioned themselves, and the rosette

And within ten minutes after the first goal, Ireland had scored twice more, bringing their lead to thirty-zero and causing a thunderous tide of roars and applause from the green-clad supporters.

The match became still faster, but more brutal. Volkov and Vulchanov, the Bulgarian Beaters were whacking the Bludgers as fiercely as possible at the Irish Chasers, and were starting to prevent them from using some of their best moves; twice they were forced to scatter, and then, finally, Ivanova managed to break through their ranks; dodge the Keeper, Ryan; and score Bulgaria's first goal.

"Fingers in your ears!" bellowed Mr. Weasley as the veela started to dance in celebration. After a few seconds, Lucy and the others chanced a glance at the field. The veela had stopped dancing, and Bulgaria was again in possession of the Quaffle.

"Dimitrov! Levski! Dimitrov! Ivanova — oh I say!" roared Bagman. One hundred thousand wizards gasped as the two Seekers, Krum and Lynch, plummeted through the center of the Chasers, so fast that it looked as though they had just jumped from airplanes without parachutes.

Lucy rocked towards the edge of the box, thought she didn't need to she stood on her tippy-toes.

"They're going to crash!" screamed Hermione next to Harry. She was half right — at the very last second, Viktor Krum pulled out of the dive and spiraled off. Lynch, however, hit the ground with a dull thud that could be heard throughout the stadium. A huge groan rose from the Irish seats.

"Fool!" moaned Mr. Weasley. "Krum was feinting!"

Lucy laughed minically as she danced around, "That fucking moron!" She cheered, "He always falls for that move!" She high fived both Bill and Mia and instead of fitting in her own seat she sat on Remus' lap. The werewolf didn't hesitate to hold her closer, moving her around just enough to where they were both comfortable.

"It's time-out!" yelled Bagman's voice, "as trained medi wizards hurry onto the field to examine Aidan Lynch!"

"Must you be so public with your affections?" Lucius hissed from behind Lucy, the witch, as Charlie consoled both Ginny and Tahani.

"Does it bother you cousin?" Lucy with a raised brow wondered. Narcissa, seeing where the conversation was going sighed and looked at both her cousins tiredly.

"Of course it does," Lucius hissed, "It's practically beastiality." Sirius, ready to fight hopped to his feet— no one aside from the Weasleys and company, and Winky realized that this was do to wanting to strange Lucius Malfoy rather than the excitement of the game —but Lucy, with a calico smirk, looked at Malfoy and then Remus, she grabbed his chin between her finger and thumb and hesitated.

She knew just how to Lucius Malfoy's skin but she wouldn't do it at the expense of Remus' feelings. After only a second he pressed his lips against hers. The kiss was harsh, their teeth clashed together and after a moment his tongue slithered into his mouth. When they pulled away from one another a thin line of spit connected their two lips, and when Lucy, with an evil smile on her face turned back to her cousin's husband she saw that the man in question had turned a purple color.

Lucy once more faced the game when Lynch got to his feet at last, to loud cheers from the green-clad supporters, mounted his Firebolt, and kicked back off into the air. His revival seemed to give Ireland new heart. When Mostafa blew his whistle again, the Chasers moved into action with a skill unrivaled by anything Lucy had seen in the game. She then wondered when they got so good. After fifteen more fast and furious minutes, Ireland had pulled ahead by ten more goals. They were now leading by one hundred and thirty points to ten, and the game was starting to get dirtier.

As Mullet shot toward the goal posts yet again, clutching the Quaffle tightly under her arm, the Bulgarian Keeper, Zograf, flew out to meet her.

Mostafa's long, shrill whistle blast, told him it had been a foul.

"Bullshit!" Lucy cried.

"And Mostafa takes the Bulgarian Keeper to task for cobbing — excessive use of elbows!" Bagman informed the roaring spectators.

"And — yes, it's a penalty to Ireland!" The leprechauns, who had risen angrily into the air like a swarm of glittering hornets when Mullet had been fouled, now darted together to form the words

"HA, HA, HA!" The veela on the other side of the field leapt to their feet, tossed their hair angrily, and started to dance again. As one, the Weasley boys and Harry stuffed their fingers into their ears, but Hermione, who hadn't bothered, was soon tugging on Harry's arm. He turned to look at her, and she pulled his fingers impatiently out of his ears.

"Look at the referee!" she said, giggling. Harry looked down at the field. Hassan Mostafa had landed right in front of the dancing veela, and was acting very oddly indeed. He was flexing his muscles and smoothing his mustache excitedly.

"Now, we can't have that!" said Ludo Bagman, though he sounded highly amused. "Somebody slap the referee!"

Lucy laughed as a mediwizard came tearing across the field, his fingers stuffed into his own ears, and kicked Mostafa hard in the shins. Mostafa seemed to come to himself; he looked exceptionally embarrassed and started shouting at the veela, who had stopped dancing and were looking mutinous.

"And unless I'm much mistaken, Mostafa is actually attempting to send off the Bulgarian team mascots!" said Bagman's voice. "Now there's something we haven't seen before. . . . Oh this could turn nasty. . . ." It did: The Bulgarian Beaters, Volkov and Vulchanov, landed on either side of Mostafa and began arguing furiously with him, gesticulating towards the leprechauns, who had now gleefully formed the words "HEE, HEE, HEE."

Mostafa was not impressed by the Bulgarians' arguments, however; he was jabbing his finger into the air, clearly telling them to get flying again, and when they refused, he gave two short blasts on his whistle. Lucy scowled at the referee.

"Two penalties for Ireland!" shouted Bagman, and the Bulgarian crowd howled with anger. "And Volkov and Vulchanov had better get back on those brooms . . . yes . . . there they go . . . and Troy takes the Quaffle . . ."

Play now reached a level of ferocity beyond anything they had yet seen. The Beaters on both sides were acting without mercy: Volkov and Vulchanov in particular seemed not to care whether their clubs made contact with Bludger or human as they swung them violently through the air. Dimitrov shot straight at Moran, who had the Quaffle, nearly knocking her off her broom.

"Foul!" roared the Irish supporters as one, all standing up in a great wave of green.

"Like hell that's a foul!"

"Foul!" echoed Ludo Bagman's magically magnified voice.

"Dimitrov skins Moran — deliberately flying to collide there — and it's got to be another penalty — yes, there's the whistle!"

"That's not in the rulebook you stupid pinstipped gnat" Lucy hollared, "It's a fair move!" She heard Mia and Bill laughing behind her,

"This is why we don't take you games Merlin Lucy!" Lucy turned to her friend,

"I'm going to start mislabeling dragons," Lucy with a blank face said and MIa and Charlie who had been laughing gasped.

"Don't you dare!"

The leprechauns had risen into the air again, and this time, they formed a giant hand, which was making a very rude sign indeed at the veela across the field. At this, the veela lost control. Instead of dancing, they launched themselves across the field and began throwing what seemed to be handfuls of fire at the leprechauns. They didn't look remotely beautiful now. On the contrary, their faces were elongating into sharp, cruel-beaked bird heads, and long, scaly wings were bursting from their shoulders —

"And that, boys," yelled Mr. Weasley over the tumult of the crowd below, "is why you should never go for looks alone!" Ministry wizards were flooding onto the field to separate the veela and the leprechauns, but with little success; meanwhile, the pitched battle below was nothing to the one taking place above. The Quaffle changed hands with the speed of a bullet.

"Levski — Dimitrov — Moran — Troy — Mullet — Ivanova — Moran again — Moran — MORAN SCORES!"

But the cheers of the Irish supporters were barely heard over the shrieks of the veela, the blasts now issuing from the Ministry members' wands, and the furious roars of the Bulgarians. The game recommenced immediately; now Levski had the Quaffle, now Dimitrov — The Irish Beater Quigley swung heavily at a passing Bludger, and hit it as hard as possible toward Krum, who did not duck quickly enough. It hit him full in the face. There was a deafening groan from the crowd; Krum's nose looked broken, there was blood everywhere, but Hassan Mostafa didn't blow his whistle. And while Lucy did get that his broom was onfire she stilled cried out for a foul to be called.

"Time-out! Ah, come on, he can't play like that, look at him —"

"Look at Lynch!" Harry yelled.

For the Irish Seeker had suddenly gone into a dive, and Lucy, because she knew that Lynch couldn't pull off a Wronski Feint to save his mother's life; this was the real thing. . . .

"He's seen the Snitch!" Harry shouted. "He's seen it! Look at him go!" Half the crowd seemed to have realized what was happening; the Irish supporters rose in another great wave of green, screaming their Seeker on . . . but Krum was on his tail. How he could see where he was going, Harry had no idea; there were flecks of blood flying through the air behind him, but he was drawing level with Lynch now as the pair of them hurtled toward the ground again —

"They're going to crash!" shrieked Hermione.

"They're not!" roared Ron.

"Lynch is!" yelled Harry. And he was right — for the second time, Lynch hit the ground

with tremendous force and was immediately stampeded by a horde of angry veela. Lucy laughed gleefully as she bounced around and cheered.

"The Snitch, where's the Snitch?" bellowed Charlie, along the row.

"He's got it — Krum's got it — it's all over!" shouted Harry. Tahani launched into herself in Lucy's arms and Sirius and Remus clasped each other in a tight hug, cheering, and Theo was snickering at Meiri.

Krum, his red robes shining with blood from his nose, was rising gently into the air, his fist held high, a glint of gold in his hand. The scoreboard was flashing BULGARIA: 160, IRELAND: 170 across the crowd, who didn't seem to have realized what had happened. Then, slowly, as though a great jumbo jet were revving up, the rumbling from the Ireland supporters grew louder and louder and erupted into screams of delight.

"IRELAND WINS!" Bagman shouted, who like the Irish, seemed to be taken aback by the sudden end of the match. "KRUM GETS THE SNITCH — BUT IRELAND WINS — good lord, I don't think any of us were expecting that!"

"What did he catch the Snitch for?" Ron bellowed, even as he jumped up and down, applauding with his hands over his head. "He ended it when Ireland were a hundred and sixty points ahead, the idiot!"

"He knew they were never going to catch up!" Lucy shouted back over all the noise, also applauding loudly. "The Irish Chasers were too good. . . . He wanted to end it on his terms, that's all. . . ."

"He was very brave, wasn't he?" Hermione said, leaning forward to watch Krum land as a swarm of medi wizards blasted a path through the battling leprechauns and veela to get to him. "He looks a terrible mess. . . ."

Krum, surrounded by medi wizards. He looked surlier than ever and refused to let them mop him up. His team members were around him, shaking their heads and looking dejected; a short way away, the Irish players were dancing gleefully in a shower of gold descending from their mascots. Flags were waving all over the stadium, the Irish national anthem blared from all sides; the veela were shrinking back into their usual, beautiful selves now, though looking dispirited and forlorn.

"Vell, ve fought bravely," said a gloomy voice behind Harry. He looked around; it was the Bulgarian Minister of Magic.

"You can speak English!" said Fudge, sounding outraged. "And you've been letting me mime everything all day!"

"Vell, it vos very funny," said the Bulgarian minister, shrugging.

"And as the Irish team performs a lap of honor, flanked by their mascots, the Quidditch World Cup itself is brought into the Top Box!" roared Bagman.

Lucy's eyes were suddenly dazzled by a blinding white light, as the Top Box was magically illuminated so that everyone in the stands could see the inside. Squinting toward the entrance, he saw two panting wizards carrying a vast golden cup into the box, which they handed to Cornelius Fudge, who was still looking very disgruntled that he'd been using sign language all day for nothing.

"Let's have a really loud hand for the gallant losers — Bulgaria!" Bagman shouted. And up the stairs into the box came the seven defeated Bulgarian players. The crowd below was applauding appreciatively. One by one, the Bulgarians filed between the rows of seats in the box, and Bagman called out the name of each as they shook hands with their own minister and then with Fudge. Krum, who was last in line, looked like a real mess. Two black eyes were blooming spectacularly on his bloody face. He was still holding the Snitch. Lucy noticed that he seemed much less coordinated on the ground. He was slightly duck-footed and distinctly round-shouldered. But when Krum's name was announced, the whole stadium gave him a resounding, earsplitting roar.

And then came the Irish team much to Lucy's malcontent. Aidan Lynch was being supported by Moran and Connolly; the second crash seemed to have dazed him and his eyes looked strangely unfocused. But he grinned happily as Troy and Quigley lifted the Cup into the air and the crowd below thundered its approval.

"Black!" Lynch cried from his spot on Connollys shoulders, "You came to watch me!" Lucy wanted to tell him that no she hadn't, that she had come to watch the game and that he just so happened to be in it. But she couldn't, because in a single fluid motion Adien Lynch was off his teammates shoulders and kissing her.

Lucy Black, mortified and furious didn't hesitate in throwing him off of her; Mr. Weasley and kids looked horrified and Sirius gripped Remus' arm- Remus looked to be trying to surge forward -and Bill couldn't take two steps forward before Lucy had jabbed her arm out and made contact with Lynch's nose.

The green seeker let out a painful groan and Lucy lunged. She managed to kick Lynch in the forehead, sprawling the seeker out on the ground as Bill wrapped his arms around her waist and Connolly pulled Lynch back.

"What the fuck Black!" Quigley demanded,

"Fuck you Quigley, it was your mate who kissed me-try that shit agin Lynch and I'll be hanging your bloody head on my walls!"

At last, when the Irish team had left the box to perform another lap of honor on their brooms- Adien Lynch bloody and bruised in a way no one else in the stadium could explain,-Bagman pointed his wand at his throat and muttered, "Quietus."

"They'll be talking about this one for years," he said hoarsely, "a really unexpected twist, that. . . . shame it couldn't have lasted longer. . . . Ah yes. . . . yes, I owe you . . . how much?"

For Fred and George had just scrambled over the backs of their seats and were standing in front of Ludo Bagman with broad grins on their faces, their hands outstretched.

**…**

"Don't tell your mother you've been gambling," Mr. Weasley implored Fred and George as they all made their way slowly down the purple-carpeted stairs.

"Don't worry, Dad," said Fred gleefully, "we've got big plans for this money. We don't want it confiscated." Mr. Weasley looked for a moment as though he was going to ask what these big plans were, but seemed to decide, upon reflection, that he didn't want to know.

It was there that Remus and Lucy, too caught up in the crowds got separated from the rest of the group.

"I have," Lucy said, "No idea where we are." They hadn't meant to wander off the trail but with so many witches and wizards and the celebration that had been going on one step to the side had become two which quickly became a lot more than just two.

"Lets just keep walking, it was a straight walk from the campsite right?" Remus wondered and Lucy nodded.

It was quiet for a moment; Remus and her holding hands and the moon, not even half full strolling through the woods lost shouldn't have brought Lucy such peace but as her shoulder bumped into his and their eyes met and crinkled she couldn't help it.

"I love you," Lucy stopped walking and looked atRemus as if he'd grown a second head.

"What?"

"I love you. I'm in love with you. And I'm not just saying it because Lynch kissed you, I mean, I am, but not because I'm jealous," Remus said slightly rambling. "It's, you choose to love me, you could have Adien Lynch to wake up to but you chose me to go to bed and wake up with and you choose me and—I love you."

Lucy threw her arms around his neck and pressed her lips against his, thankful that they were lost and away from the kids.

**…**

Lucy and Remus, wearing giddy, love sick expressions and crumpled clothes walked into the Weasleys tent and into an enjoyable argument about the match; Mr. Weasley and Sirius got drawn into a disagreement about cobbing with Charlie, and it was only when Ginny fell asleep right at the tiny table and spilled hot chocolate all over the floor that Mr. Weasley called a halt to the verbal replays and insisted that everyone go to bed.

"Oh I am glad I'm not on duty," muttered Mr. Weasley sleepily to Lucy as Hermione, Ophelia and Ginny went into the next tent. "I wouldn't fancy having to go and tell the Irish they've got to stop Celebrating."

"Tell me about it," Lucy said as she stood up. Lucy, after kissing Mr. Weasley on the cheek goodnight, and giving Bill, Charlie and a sleepy Mia tight hugs, she and the others went to theirs to get changed and to bed.

And it was only when Lucy truly started to fall asleep on the couch, cuddled up next to Remus that Mr. Weasley burst into the tent shouting "Get up! come on now, get up, this is urgent!" Lucy, with her wand in hand, and pajamas on, shot up out of bed. Remus did as well. Sirius and the children rushed out of their bunks

"What's wrong?" Lucy wondered urgently. Dimly, she could tell that something was wrong. The noises in the campsite had changed. The singing had stopped. She could hear screams, and the sound of people running.

"There's no time— an attack —quickly!" Lucy followed Mr. Weasley as he darted back out of the tent, Remus, and her brother and the kids followed. By the light of the few fires that were still burning, she could see people running away into the woods, fleeing something that was moving across the field toward them, something that was emitting odd flashes of light and noises like gunfire. Loud jeering, roars of laughter, and drunken yells were drifting toward them; then came a burst of strong green light, which illuminated the scene.

A crowd of wizards, tightly packed and moving together with wands pointing straight upward, was marching slowly across the field. Lucy quickly realized that their heads were hooded and their faces masked. She quickly realised where she had seen masks and hoods like theres before.

She turned to the kids, "Theo, Harry, take Tahani into the woods and hide. One of us will come get you, now go!" Lucy didn't wait for Remus or Sirius to say something or for the children to reply. She ran forward into the fray, towards where high above the ground, floating along in midair, four struggling figures were being contorted into grotesque shapes. It was as though the masked wizards on the ground were puppeteers, and the people above them were marionettes operated by invisible strings that rose from the wands into the air. Two of the figures were very small.

More wizards were joining the marching group, laughing and pointing up at the floating bodies. Tents crumpled and fell as the marching crowd swelled. Several caught tents caught fire.

Lucy turned to the first masked figure, the first death eater she saw, and fired a spell her cousin Bellatrix Lestrange had taught her. Screams grew louder. The spell, though not her cousins specialty, was one she had used often on the stray animals that wandered thought her aunt and uncles yard; a bone breaking spell.

The Death Eater stumbled back with a cry, his wand his clutching his shoulder where Lucy's spell had hit.

"Explusio!" The Death Eater cried;

"Progecto!" Lucy looked behind her and saw Bill Weasley with a strained grin on his face, two steps behind her. "Starting the party without me?" BIll wondered as Lucy shot Diffendo.

"Reductio!" The Death Eater shot back, both Lucy and Bill dived in opposite directions. Lucy turned to shoot another spell at the Death Eater when the light of a silver mask caught her eye.

"Bill duck!" Without question BIll did so. "Uanescere!" The disintegrating spell missed but the Death Eater that had been coming up from behind BIll was forced to stagger back. Lucy and Bill stood up, Bill facing the Death Eater that had tried to sneak up behind them and Lucy facing the one that had been burning down the tents.

"Just like your mums funeral hu-Lucy?" BIll quipped as he blocked whatever spell the Death Eater he'd been facing shot. He carried it with the knock-back jinx. Lucy shot Glacius Tria, a curse known for turning living things into ice, which just nearly got the Death Eater and Diffendo, which did catch the Death Eater in the arm.

UNable to fight any longer the Death Eater, with a bloody cut and broken shoulder apparated. Seconds later, after seeing it had become two against one the Death Eater Bill had been facing apparated as well.

Lucy could see Me. Weasley, Charlie, Mia and Percy fighting the flames that had quickly started to overtake the campgrounds whilst Sirius and Remus helped direct families with small children to the woods. Part of her wanted to help them put out the fire, but another part, the part that remembered her childhood, remembered the Black Manor Cellar wanted to fight; wanted to catch the Death Feathers out there and that part of her wanted to put them down.

She looked at Bill, "I—" But Bill with a smile nodded,

"Come on, Death Eaters aren't going to stop themselves, obviously." Lucy grinned.

**…**

Barty Crouch Senior, Dora and her partner Kingsley, who had been called from the MInistry because of the Death Eaters, had run into Lucy and Bill as they fought off their fourth Death Eater; Lucy having nearly blow off that ones left ankle.

"Black!" Crouch demanded, 'What the hell are you doing, you're not an Auror!" Lucy turned to him ready to yell only to catch sight of a bloodstain on his lower abdomen; she smirked,

"Neither are you Crouch!" And for a brief second Lucy could have sworn Barty Crouch Senior was smiling. Only he stopped and paled as he looked far behind them; Kingsley took a step back and Lucy and Bill turned their eyes to the sky where Dora and Kingsley and Crouch were all looking horrified.

The Dark mark. A colossal skull, comprised of what looked like emerald stars, with a serpent protruding from its mouth like a tongue. As they watched, it rose higher and higher, blazing in a haze of greenish smoke, etched against the black sky like a new constellation.

Lucy had never seen the mark in person— no, that was wrong, she had grown up seeing the mark tattooed on the forearms of the people she called family members —but never had she seen the mark flying above, proudly.

"What's the dark mark?" Little Lucy had once asked Barty Crouch junior. She had constantly seen the mark on the cover of the Daily Prophet but no one would tell her what it meant. Regulus wouldn't tell her no matter how many times she asked, he only ever instructed her to run if she saw the mark, to get away and come home as quickly as possible.

"It's a symbol," Barty had grinned,

"Of what?"

"My Lords will. Just know everytime you see that another mudblood or halfbreed is dead."

Lucy could hear screams from across the campgrounds ringing in her ears. Bill clutched Lucy's forearm tightly.

"That's near the campsite!" Bill wheezed. Lucy grabbed the shoulder of Bills shirt and with a fleeting look to Dora the pair of them disapperated.

Bill and Lucy had arrived at the smouldering Weasley tent and saw some odd twenty something wizards had apperated to the site as well. She also noticed that in the middle of the wizards were four familiar figures.

"Duck!" Harry yelled as the wizards and witches fired. He pulled, Lucy lost sight of them between the grass and the group of people, Ron, Hermoine and Meiri onto the ground as half the wizards accidently knocked their partners out.

Some spells; some wands and some of the stupefied wizards burned off tree trunks, rebounding into the darkness. Lucy and Bill had started forward when Mr. Weasley and Sirius had darted before them, faster, screaming,

"Stop!" yelled a voice he recognized. "STOP! That's my son!" Harry's hair stopped blowing about and raised his head a little higher. The wizard in front of them lowered their wands and as Mr. Weasley seized his son and niece Sirius pulled Harry against him tightly, breathing deeply as he did.

"Ron — Harry" his voice sounded shaky — "Hermione — Meiri, are you all right?"

"Out of the way, Arthur," said the cold, curt voice of Mr. Crouch. He and the other Ministry wizards were closing in on them.

"Which of you did it?" he snapped, his sharp eyes darting between them. "Which of you conjured the Dark Mark?"

"We didn't do that!" said Harry, gesturing at the skull.

"We didn't do anything!" said Ron, who was rubbing his elbow and looking indignantly at his father. "What did you want to attack us for?"

"Do not lie, sir!" shouted Mr. Crouch. His wand was still pointing directly at Ron, and his eyes were popping — he looked slightly mad.

"Put your wand away now Crouch!" Lucy snapped, she stepped between Crouch and Ron,

"They have been discovered at the scene of the crime!"

"That's all you need to send someone to Azkaban isn't it!" Sirius demanded, still holding Harry. Crouch turned a vibrant, Weasley shade of red.

"Barty," whispered a witch in a long woolen dressing gown, she looked at Sirius and then Lucy, "they're kids, Barty, they'd never have been able to —"

"Where did the Mark come from, you three?" said Mr. Weasley quickly.

"Over there," said Hermione shakily, pointing at the place where they had heard the voice. "There was someone behind the trees . . . they shouted words — an incantation —"

"Oh, stood over there, did they?" said Mr. Crouch, turning his popping eyes on Hermione now, disbelief etched all over his face.

"Said an incantation, did they? You seem very well informed about how that Mark is summoned, missy —"

"Well you kind of need to do stand somewhere and say an incantation to do magic or have you forgotten how magic works?" Snarled Lucy. She didn't need to convince any of the other Ministry wizards. None of them, apart from Mr. Crouch seemed to think it remotely likely that Harry, Ron, or Hermione or Meiri had conjured the skull; on the contrary, at Hermione's words, they had all raised their wands again and were pointing in the direction she had indicated, squinting through the dark trees.

"We're too late," said the witch in the woolen dressing gown, shaking her head. "They'll have Disapparated."

"I don't think so," said a wizard with a scrubby brown beard. It was Amos Diggory, Cedric's father. "Our Stunners went right through those trees. . . . There's a good chance we got them. .."

"Amos, be careful!" said a few of the wizards warningly. Mr. Diggory squared his shoulders, and looked at the group, Lucy, with fire pumping through her veins and Bill, who she knew would follow her, stepped forward with Mr. Diggory.

"Bill!" Mr. Weasley hissed worriedly, "Lucy!" The three of them raised his wand, marched across the clearing, and disappeared into the darkness.

Lucy, only a step behind Mr. Dorggory and Bill, only half a step behind her looked around for a moment, moving their wands to check under bushes and between the leaves. Lucy had her back to Mr. Diggor and Bill and BIll had his back to them, as Mr. Diggory had his to them as well; the three of them all both working in their search and protecting the other.

A second later, "Yes! We got them!" Mr. Diggory called, only to freeze. Lucy and BIll turned half expecting Edgar Nott or Lucius Malfoy; "There's someone here! Unconscious!" But that's not what they found. "It's — but — blimey . . ." The three of them had been expecting to find a witch or ward, dressed in black robes and hidden behind a mask; however, they found the unconscious body of a house elf.

"You've got someone?" shouted Mr. Crouch, sounding highly disbelieving. "Who? Who is it?" Carrying the limp figure of the house elf that had shared the top box with Lucy and Bill, the pair of them, and Mr. Diggory re emerged from behind the trees. Mr. Crouch did not move or speak as Mr. Diggory deposited his elf on the ground at his feet. The other Ministry wizards were all staring at Mr. Crouch. For a few seconds Crouch remained transfixed, his eyes blazing in his white face as he stared down at Winky.

Then he appeared to come to life again.

"This — cannot — be," he said jerkily. "No —" Perhaps if he hadn't pointed his wand at Ron, hadn't tried to pin the Dark Mark on Harry, Meiri, Ron and Hermionie Lucy would have felt for the man, but he had pointed his wand at Ron and he had tried to pin the Dark MArk on them and so Lucy just stared at him unblinking.

He moved quickly around Mr. Diggory and strode off toward the place where he had found Winky.

"No point, Mr. Crouch," Mr. Diggory called after him. "There's no one else there." But Mr. Crouch did not seem prepared to take his word for it.

They could hear him moving around and the rustling of leaves as he pushed the bushes aside, searching.

"Bit embarrassing," Mr. Diggory said grimly, looking down at Winky's unconscious form. "Barty Crouch's house-elf . . . I mean to say . . ."

"Come off it, Amos," said Mr. Weasley quietly, "you don't seriously think it was the elf ? The Dark Mark's a wizard's sign. It requires a wand."

"Yeah," said Lucy, "but she had a wand."

"What?" said Mr. Weasley.

"Here, look." Mr. Diggory held up a wand and showed it to Mr. Weasley. "Had it in her hand. So that's clause three of the Code of Wand Use broken, for a start. No non-human creature is permitted to carry or use a wand." Just then there was another pop, and Ludo Bagman Apparated right next to Mr. Weasley. Looking breathless and disoriented, he spun on the spot, goggling upward at the emerald-green skull.

"The Dark Mark!" he panted, almost trampling Winky as he turned inquiringly to his colleagues.

"Who did it? Did you get them? Barty! What's going on?" Mr. Crouch had returned empty-handed. His face was still ghostly white, and his hands and his toothbrush mustache were both twitching.

"Where have you been, Barty?" said Bagman. "Why weren't you at the match? Your elf was saving you a seat too — gulping gargoyles!" Bagman had just noticed Winky lying at his feet.

"What happened to her?"

"I have been busy, Ludo," said Mr. Crouch, still talking in the same jerky fashion, barely moving his lips.

"And my elf has been stunned."

"Stunned? By you lot, you mean? But why — ?" Comprehension dawned suddenly on Bagman's round, shiny face; he looked up at the skull, down at Winky, and then at Mr. Crouch.

"No!" he said. "Winky? Conjure the Dark Mark? She wouldn't know how! She'd need a wand, for a start!"

"And she had one," said Mr. Diggory. "I found her holding one, Ludo. If it's alright with you, Mr. Crouch, I think we should hear what she has to say for herself."

Crouch gave no sign that he had heard Mr. Diggory, but Mr. Diggory seemed to take his silence for assent. He raised his own wand, pointed it at Winky, and said, "Rennervate!"

Winky stirred feebly. Her great brown eyes opened and she blinked several times in a bemused sort of way. Watched by the silent wizards, she raised herself shakily into a sitting position. She caught sight of Mr. Diggory's feet, and slowly, tremulously, raised her eyes to stare up into his face; then, more slowly still, she looked up into the sky. Lucy could see the floating skull reflected twice in her enormous, glassy eyes. She gave a gasp, looked wildly around the crowded clearing, and burst into terrified sobs.

"Elf !" said Mr. Diggory sternly. "Do you know who I am? I'm a member of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures!" Winky began to rock backward and forward on the ground, her breath coming in sharp bursts.

"As you see, elf, the Dark Mark was conjured here a short while ago," said Mr. Diggory. "And you were discovered moments later, right beneath it! An explanation, if you please!"

"I — I — I is not doing it, sir!" Winky gasped. "I is not knowing how, sir!"

"You were found with a wand in your hand!" barked Mr. Diggory, brandishing it in front of her. And as the wand caught the green light that was filling the clearing from the skull above.

"Hey — that's mine!" Harry said. Everyone in the clearing looked at him. And Lucy wondered if she and Sirius would have to sit down with all the children and explain that in times like this— times with more than two dozen Ministry officials on high alert and ready to throw anyone in Azkaban —that would be the time to not say anything; or whether she and Sirius would just have to sit down and explain that concept to just Harry.

"Excuse me?" said Mr. Diggory, incredulously.

"That's my wand!" said Harry. "I dropped it!"

"You dropped it?" repeated Mr. Diggory in disbelief. "Is this a confession? You threw it aside after you conjured the Mark?"

"Amos, think who you're talking to!" said Mr. Weasley, very angrily as Sirius warned Mr. Diggory to watch it, "Is Harry Potter likely to conjure the Dark Mark?"

"Er — of course not," mumbled Mr. Diggory. "Sorry . . . carried away . . ."

"I didn't drop it there, anyway," said Harry, jerking his thumb toward the trees beneath the skull.

"I missed it right after we got into the wood."

"So," said Mr. Diggory, his eyes hardening as he turned to look at Winky again, cowering at his feet. "You found this wand, eh, elf ? And you picked it up and thought you'd have some fun with it, did you?"

"I am not doing magic with it, sir!" squealed Winky, tears streaming down the sides of her squashed and bulbous nose. "I is . . . I is . . . I is just picking it up, sir! I am not making the Dark Mark, sir, I am not knowing how!"

"It wasn't her!" said Meiri speaking up for the first time. She looked very nervous, speaking up in front of all these Ministry wizards, yet determined all the same. "Winky's got a squeaky little voice, and the voice we heard doing the incantation was much deeper!" She looked around at Hermione, Harry and Ron, appealing for their support. "It didn't sound anything like Winky, did it?"

"No," said Harry, shaking his head. "It definitely didn't sound like an elf."

"Yeah, it was a human voice," said Ron.

"Well, we'll soon see," growled Mr. Diggory, looking unimpressed. "There's a simple way of discovering the last spell a wand performed, elf, did you know that?"

Winky trembled and shook her head frantically, her ears flapping, as Mr. Diggory raised his own wand again and placed it tip to tip with Harry's.

"Prior Incantato!" roared Mr. Diggory.

Harry heard Hermione gasped, horrified, as a gigantic serpent tongued skull erupted from the point where the two wands met, but it was a mere shadow of the green skull high above them; it looked as though it were made of thick gray smoke: the ghost of a spell.

"Deletrius!" Mr. Diggory shouted, and the smoky skull vanished in a wisp of smoke.

"So," said Mr. Diggory with a kind of savage triumph, looking down upon Winky, who was still shaking convulsively.

"I am not doing it!" she squealed, her eyes rolling in terror. "I is not, I is not, I is not knowing how! I is a good elf, I wasn't using wands, I isn't knowing how!"

"You've been caught red-handed, elf !" Mr. Diggory roared.

"Caught with the guilty wand in your hand !"

"Amos," said Mr. Weasley loudly, "think about it . . . precious few wizards know how to spell. . . . Where would she have learned it?"

"Perhaps Amos is suggesting," said Mr. Crouch, cold anger in every syllable, "that I routinely teach my servants to conjure the Dark Mark?"

There was a deeply unpleasant silence. Amos Diggory looked horrified. "Mr. Crouch . . . not . . . not at all . . ."

"You have now come very close to accusing the two people in this clearing who are least likely to conjure that Mark!" barked Mr. Crouch. "Harry Potter — and myself ! I suppose you are familiar with the boy's story, Amos?"

"Of course — everyone knows —" muttered Mr. Diggory, looking highly discomforted.

"And I trust you remember the many proofs I have given, over a long career, that I despise and detest the Dark Arts and those who practice them?" Mr. Crouch shouted, his eyes bulging again. Lucy stood there for a moment looking at Crouch and saw a much younger version of himself, a version it more points cheek bones and slightly darker eyes and a much more clean shaven face.

"Mr. Crouch, I — I never suggested you had anything to do with it!" Amos Diggory muttered again, now reddening behind his scrubby brown beard.

"If you accuse my elf, you accuse me, Diggory!" shouted Mr. Crouch. "Where else would she have learned to conjure it?"

"She — she might've picked it up anywhere —" Lucy could hear what Mr. Diggory wasn't saying though; She could have picked it up from your son. But the man didn't dare say it, no one did. Lucy knew better than to poke the sleeping dragon and so she didn't either.

"Precisely, Amos," said Mr. Weasley. "She might have picked it up anywhere. . . . Winky?" he said kindly, turning to the elf, but she flinched as though he too was shouting at her. "Where exactly did you find Harry's wand?"

Winky was twisting the hem of her tea towel so violently that it was fraying beneath her fingers.

"I — I is finding it . . . finding it there, sir. . . ." she whispered, "there . . . in the trees, sir. . . ."

"You see, Amos?" said Mr. Weasley. "Whoever conjured the Mark could have Disapparated right after they'd done it, leaving Harry's wand behind. A clever thing to do, not using their own wand, which could have betrayed them. And Winky here had the misfortune to come across the wand moments later and pick it up.

"But then, she'd have been only a few feet away from the real culprit!" said Mr. Diggory impatiently. "Elf ? Did you see anyone?"

Winky began to tremble worse than ever. Her giant eyes flickered from Mr. Diggory, to Ludo Bagman, and onto Mr. Crouch.

Then she gulped and said, "I am seeing no one, sir . . . no one . . ." The elf was lying and Lucy didn't know why.

"Amos," said Mr. Crouch curtly, "I am fully aware that, in the ordinary course of events, you would want to take Winky into your department for questioning. I ask you, however, to allow me to deal with her." Mr. Diggory looked as though he didn't think much of this suggestion at all, but it was clear that after accusing both Harry and Mr. Crouch he did not dare refuse him. "You may rest assured that she will be punished," Mr. Crouch added coldly.

"M-m-master . . ." Winky stammered, looking up at Mr. Crouch, her eyes brimming with tears. "M-m-master, p-p-please . . ." Mr. Crouch stared back, his face somehow sharpened, each line upon it more deeply etched. There was no pity in his gaze.

"Winky has behaved tonight in a manner I would not have believed possible," he said slowly. "I told her to remain in the tent. I told her to stay there while I went to sort out the trouble. And I find that she disobeyed me. This means clothes."

"No!" shrieked Winky, prostrating herself at Mr. Crouch's feet.

"No, master! Not clothes, not clothes!" It was pitiful to see the way Winky clutched at her tea towel as she sobbed over Mr. Crouch's feet.

"But she was frightened!" Hermione burst out angrily, glaring at Mr. Crouch. "Your elf 's scared of heights, and those wizards in masks were levitating people! You can't blame her for wanting to get out of their way!"

Mr. Crouch took a step backward, freeing himself from contact with the elf, and Lucy stepped forward between Hermione and Crouch, incase he tried to take even a single intimidating step towards the girl.

"I have no use for a house-elf who disobeys me," he said coldly, looking over at Hermione. "I have no use for a servant who forgets what is due to her master, and to her master's reputation." Winky was crying so hard that her sobs echoed around the clearing. There was a very nasty silence, which was ended by Mr. Weasley, who said quietly,

"Well, I think I'll take my lot back to the tent, if nobody's got any objections. Amos, that wand's told us all it can — if Harry could have it back, please —" Mr. Diggory handed Harry his wand and Harry pocketed it.

"Come on, you six," Mr. Weasley said quietly. But Hermione didn't seem to want to move; her eyes were still upon the sobbing elf. "Hermione!" Mr. Weasley said, more urgently. She turned and followed Harry and Ron out of the clearing and off through the trees.

"What's going to happen to Winky?" said Hermione, the moment they had left the clearing.

"I don't know," said Mr. Weasley but that was a lie. Lucy knew this meant Winky would more than likely die on the streets; a house elf that disobeyed orders and was found at the scene of the crime was a house elf of nose use.

"The way they were treating her!" said Hermione furiously. "Mr. Diggory, calling her 'elf ' all the time . . . and Mr. Crouch! He knows she didn't do it and he's still going to sack her! He didn't care how frightened she'd been, or how upset she was — it was like she wasn't even human!"

"Well, she's not," said Ron. Hermione rounded on him.

"That doesn't mean she doesn't have feelings, Ron. It's disgusting the way —"

"Hermione, I agree with you," said Mr. Weasley quickly, beckoning her on, "but now is not the time to discuss elf rights. I want to get back to the tent as fast as we can. What happened to the others?"

"We lost them in the dark," said Ron. "Dad, why was everyone so uptight about that skull thing?"

"I'll explain everything back at the tent," said Mr. Weasley tensely. But when they reached the edge of the woods, their progress was impeded. A large crowd of frightened-looking witches and wizards was congregated there, and when they saw Mr. Weasley coming toward them, many of them surged forward.

"What's going on in there?"

"Who conjured it?"

"Arthur — it's not — Him?"

"Of course it's not Him," said Mr. Weasley impatiently. "We don't know who it was; it looks like they Disapparated. Now excuse me, please, I want to get to bed."

He led Harry, who Sirius kept closely too and Lucy and the others through the crowd and back into the campsite. All was quiet now; there was no sign of the masked wizards, though several ruined tents were still smoking.

Charlie's head was poking out of the boys' tent.

"Dad, what's going on?" he called through the dark. "Fred, George, and Ginny got back okay, but the others —"

"I've got them here," said Mr. Weasley, bending down and entering the tent. Harry, Ron, and Hermione entered after him.

Remus was sitting at the small kitchen table, holding a bedsheet to his arm, which was bleeding profusely. Charlie had a large rip in his shirt, and Mia had a bruise on her cheek and ice on her wrist, and Percy was sporting a bloody nose. Fred, George, Ophelia Theo, Tahani and Ginny looked unhurt, though shaken.

Lucy though looked at Remus first scooped up Theo and Tahani before she moved to him. "You're okay" Tahani whimpered in Lucy's arms and Theos grip tightened around her.

"Of course I'm okay," Lucy said, "I'll always be okay."

'As long as I'm there to watch your back," Bill teased, it was a forced joke and the fear in his eyes still lingered but Lucy smiled back anyway.

"Of course, as long as Bills my second how can I lose?" She then dropped a kiss to the tops of Tahani and Theos head before moving to sit next to Remus. Gently she touched his cheek.

"What happened?"

"Someone was in the woods, there was a family of muggle-borns and—"

"Played hero and saved them?" Lucy wondered, tears welled up in her eyes. What would she have done if she had lost him? If she had lost any of the kids?

Charlie turned to his father.

"I was just taking a note out of your book love," Remus whispered, he pressed his forehead against her own. "Don't, if something happens again, don't run off like that again. I didn't know if that was the last time I'd see you, and then Bill ran off after you and—" Remus swallowed a lump in his throat.

"I love you, I can't lose you too." Lucy nodded and with a sweet kiss she turned away as Ron, Hermionie, Meiri, Harry and Mr. Weasley told the others what had happened. Neither Bill or Lucy mentioned dueling a handful of Death Eaters.

When the five had finished their story, Percy swelled indignantly.

"Well, Mr. Crouch is quite right to get rid of an elf like that!" he said. "Running away when he'd expressly told her not to . . . embarrassing him in front of the whole Ministry . . . how would that

have looked, if she'd been brought up in front of the Department for the Regulation and Control —"

"She didn't do anything — she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time!" Hermione snapped at Percy, who looked very taken aback. Hermione had always got on fairly well with Percy — better, indeed, than any of the others.

"Hermione, a wizard in Mr. Crouch's position can't afford a house-elf who's going to run amok with a wand!" said Percy pompously, recovering himself.

"She didn't run amok!" shouted Hermione. "She just picked it up off the ground!"

"Look, can someone just explain what that skull thing?" said Ron impatiently. "It wasn't hurting anyone. . . . Why's it such a big deal?" Lucy caught Ophelia's gaze and smiled sympathetically. The teenager nodded only to stand; everyone looked at her as she walked out of the tent.

"George," Mr. Weasley motioned to his son, who was already on his feet halfway out the tent as well.

"I told you, it's You-Know-Who's symbol, Ron," said Hermione a beat later, before anyone else could answer. "I read about it in The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts."

"And it hasn't been seen for thirteen years," said Mr. Weasley quietly. "Of course people panicked . . . it was almost like seeing You-Know-Who back again."

"I don't get it," said Ron, frowning. "I mean . . . it's still only a shape in the sky. . . ."

"You-Know-Who and his followers—" Lucy thought of her cousin and cousins in law, of her brother and Barty Crouch's son, and she thought of everyone else she had known in your young childhood, "They would send the Dark Mark into the air whenever they killed," said Mr. Lucy.

"The terror it inspired . . . you have no idea, you're too young. Just picture coming home and finding the Dark Mark hovering over your house, and knowing what you're about to find inside. . . ." Mr. Weasley winced. "Everyone's worst fear . . . the very worst . . ."

There was silence for a moment. Then Remus, removing the sheet from his arm to check on his cut, said, "Well, it didn't help us tonight, whoever conjured it. It scared the Death Eaters away the moment they saw it. They all Disapparated before we'd got near enough to unmask any of them. We caught the Robertsons before they hit the ground, though. They're having their memories modified right now."

"Death Eaters?" said Harry. "What are Death Eaters?"

"It's what You-Know-Who's supporters called themselves," said Bill. "I think we saw what's left of them tonight — the ones who managed to keep themselves out of Azkaban, anyway."

"We can't prove it was them, Bill," said Mr. Weasley. "Though it probably was," he added hopelessly.

"Yeah, I bet it was!" said Ron suddenly. "Dad, we met Draco Malfoy in the woods, and he as good as told us his dad was one of those nutters in masks! And we all know the Malfoys were right in with You-Know-Who!"

Lucy turned away from Ron because he was right; Narcissa had married a man with a Dark Mark, the son of one of the first and he, without a doubt, had been one of the masked figures causing havoc.

"But what were Voldemort's supporters —" Harry began. Lucy and Weasleys flinched, Remus sucked in a sharp breath and Sirius let out a growl — like most of the wizarding world, the Weasleys always avoided saying Voldemort's name. "Sorry," said Harry quickly. "What were You-Know-Who's supporters up to, levitating Muggles? I mean, what was the point?"

"The point?" said Sirius with a hollow laugh Harry turned to his godfather. "Harry, that's their idea of fun. Half the Muggle killings back when YouKnow-Who was in power were done for fun. I suppose they had a few drinks tonight and couldn't resist reminding us all that lots of them are still at large. A nice little reunion for them," he finished disgustedly.

"But if they were the Death Eaters, why did they Disapparate when they saw the Dark Mark?" said Ron. "They'd have been pleased to see it, wouldn't they?"

"Use your brains, Ron," said Bill. "If they really were Death Eaters, they worked very hard to keep out of Azkaban when You-Know-Who lost power, and told all sorts of lies about him forcing them to kill and torture people. I bet they'd be even more frightened than the rest of us to see him come back. They denied they'd ever been involved with him when he lost his powers, and went back to their daily lives. . . . I don't reckon he'd be over-pleased with them, do you?"

"So . . . whoever conjured the Dark Mark . . ." said Hermione slowly, "were they doing it to show support for the Death Eaters, or to scare them away?"

"Your guess is as good as ours, Hermione," said Mr. Weasley.

"But I'll tell you this . . . it was only the Death Eaters who ever knew how to conjure it. I'd be very surprised if the person who did it hadn't been a Death Eater once, even if they're not now. . . . Listen, it's very late, and if your mother hears what happened she'll be worried sick. We'll get a few more hours of sleep and then try and get an early Portkey out of here, Lucy do you think you and kids—"

"We'll all be happy to stay here tonight," Lucy said and Mr. Weasley started figuring out sleeping arrangements.

* * *

**a/n: I updated! ik it took for what felt like forever BUT THIS CHAPTER IS 30K WORDS AND I ACTUALLY HAVE A LIFE SO - anyway, thanks for reading, like, comment, subsibes whatever we do on this site and please let me know what you think of lucy and remus' repationship; her relatonships with other people, just stuff in general. (i can take criticism but like, dont be ruse about it)**

**EDIT 10/29: so I edited the chapter and the next one should be up by Halloween thanks for sticking with me guys you're all the best!**


	15. September 1994 - chapter fifteen

**September 1, 1994**

They were running— though not extremely, somewhat very —late and Constellation Commorancy was in a state of disarray. Hegwid swapped around as Shebia chased after her and Harry ran after the keezel. Tahani, who could only find one of her shoes and Sirius, who had transformed into his angmuis form, searched high and low for the missing mary-jane and Remus was putting out a fire he had accidently started whilst reading the stew he had planned to make for dinner.

Theo levitated his luggage to the fireplace and Lucy, freshly changed out of her pajamas and into a fuzzy cropped sweater and form fitting muggle jean trousers, looked at the chaos around her. Lucy was a morning person, perhaps more so than Harry and Theo, but even the mania around her was grating on her last nerve.

"It's too early for this bullshit." She looked at Theo, "Go on ahead to the Weasley's let Mrs. Weasley know what's going on here and we'll be over shortly, and if she asks you to wake the twins up hex them, George has been known to punch people." Or perhaps it was Fred; either or when they had been twelve one of them punched Percy in the nose when the older Weasley brother had tried to wake them on their mothers order.

"Sheba I swear to Merlin!" Harry cried as the keezel jumped just out of his grasp while swinging a clawed paw out at the screeching snowy owl.

With a single brow raised and a half amused look Theo nodded. "Will do." He grabbed his trunk and bag and pulled them into the large fireplace with him, taking a handful of floo powder he threw the glittering dust at his feet. "The Burrow!" And with a burst of green flames Theo Nott was gone.

Lucy turned back to the rest of her family and stalked off to the dining room where Shebia sat on the fine china cabinet as Harry batted at her, just an inch or two too low to make a difference. Hedwig sat, with her feathers ruffled and an evil look on her face, perched across the room on an old still life portrait of fruit.

Lucy, in the mouth of the doorway between the kitchen and dining room, pulled her wand from her front pocket and aimed at her keezel.

"Petrificus Totalus," Lucy casted at the airborne creature; and Harry, with open arms caught the magical feline before gently placing her on the table in front of him. Harry, with his messy hair more unkempt than usual, turned to Lucy with a thankful smile.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome now let's get a move on, if you lot want breakfast with the Weasleys then we need to get a move on." Harry nodded and looked at his owl, with his arm out he called for Hedwig, who after a minute, begrudgingly landed on the crook of his elbow.

While Harry went out the archway that leads to the hallway Lucy turned back through the doors to the kitchen and saw that the tip of Remus' hair had been signed off. Biting back a smile when she caught his eye the werewolf looked at her dryly.

"Don't start," he told her, the corners of his lips twitching up as he did so.

"Start what?"

"Found it!" Tahani cried; Sirius woofed loudly. Lucy heard the thud-thud-thud of Hardy's suitcase hitting each stair as he rushed down, a caged Hedwig in the other hand.

"Oh thank Morgana," Lucy sighed, she placed her fingers against her temples and rolled her shoulders back. Remus walked up to her and soothingly wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her to his chest.

"Oh the joys of parenthood," he used sarcastically and Lucy's chest tightened because for the first time since taking in the kids someone had used that wood, parenthood. She was technically a parent. Like her mother had been a parent.

Lucy squeezed her eyes shut tightly. She wasn't like her mother, she wasn't. The very thought of ever being the slightest bit like her chruned her stomach.

She was a parent but she wasn't her mother. She wasn't.

"The Burrow!" Harry cried and crackling sounds of flames overtook him. Remus pulled back as Sirius appeared in the doorway, "The Burrow!" Tahani said.

"We are," Sirius said somewhat frazzled, "A go."

…

Lucy, with Ginny and Meiri at her sides had only hit the ground floor of the Burrow when Mrs. Weasley appeared in front of them, looking harassed.

"Arthur!" she called up the staircase. "Arthur! Urgent message from the Ministry!" Lucy flattened herself against the wall as Mr. Weasley came clattering past with his robes on back-to-front and hurtled out of sight. When the three girls entered the kitchen— everyone else already sitting down, half way done or already on their second plate of eggs and sausage —they saw Mrs. Weasley rummaging anxiously in the drawers.

"I've got a quill here somewhere!" she muttered as Mr. Weasley bent over the fire, Amos Diggory's head sat in the middle of the flames like a large, bearded egg. Harry and Tahani had both stopped what they were doing, mid bite and gawked at Amos Diggory's head. It was talking very fast, completely unperturbed by the sparks flying around it and the flames licking its ears.

". . . Muggle neighbors heard bangs and shouting, so they went and called those what-d'you-call-'ems — please-men. Arthur, you've got to get over there —"

"Here!" said Mrs. Weasley breathlessly, pushing a piece of parchment, a bottle of ink, and a crumpled quill into Mr. Weasley's hands. Lucy and Ginny and Meiri took seats at the table; Ginny next to Tahani and Meiri and Lucy on either side of Theo.

"— it's a real stroke of luck I heard about it," said Mr. Diggory's head. "I had to come into the office early to send a couple of owls, and I found the Improper Use of Magic lot all setting off — if Rita Skeeter gets hold of this one, Arthur —"

"What does Mad-Eye say happened?" asked Mr. Weasley, unscrewing the ink bottle, loading up his quill, and preparing to take notes. Lucy, Remus and Sirius all looked up and over at Mr. Weasley and Amos Diggory at the mention of the ex-head Auror.

Mr. Diggory's head rolled its eyes. "Says he heard an intruder in his yard. Says he was creeping toward the house, but was ambushed by his dustbins."

"What did the dustbins do?" asked Mr. Weasley, scribbling frantically.

"Made one hell of a noise and fired rubbish everywhere, as far as I can tell," said Mr. Diggory.

"Apparently one of them was still rocketing around when the please-men turned up —" Mr. Weasley groaned.

"And what about the intruder?"

"Arthur, you know Mad-Eye," said Mr. Diggory's head, rolling its eyes again. Sirius and Remus both snickered at that; Lucy turned her gaze down at her eggs because unlike either Sirius or Remus, or either Mr. Weasley or Amos Diggory the only time Lucy had ever met Alastor Mad-Eye Moody was when he had questioned her the day after Sirius had been arrested. He had been harsh and brisk and constantly glaring down the end of his broken and slightly blow off nose at her.

Dora though, loved the man, and seeing how she had made it through her training despite everything she had said and done in front of the man Lucy could only hazard a guess that Moody liked Dora too. Even if he— from what people said —was nothing more than a paranoid grouch,

"Someone creeping into his yard in the dead of night? More likely there's a very shell-shocked cat wandering around somewhere, covered in potato peelings. But if the Improper Use of Magic lot get their hands on Mad-Eye, he's had it — think of his record — we've got to get him off on a minor charge, something in your department — what are exploding dustbins worth?"

"Might be a caution," said Mr. Weasley, still writing very fast, his brow furrowed. "Mad-Eye didn't use his wand? He didn't actually attack anyone?"

"I'll bet he leapt out of bed and started jinxing everything he could reach through the window," said Mr. Diggory, "but they'll have a job proving it, there aren't any casualties."

"Alright, I'm off," Mr. Weasley said, and he stuffed the parchment with his notes on it into his pocket and dashed out of the kitchen again.

Mr. Diggory's head looked around at Mrs. Weasley. "Sorry about this, Molly," it said, more calmly, "bothering you so early and everything . . . but Arthur's the only one who can get Mad-Eye off, and Mad-Eye's supposed to be starting his new job today. Why did he choose last night . . ."

"Never mind, Amos," said Mrs. Weasley. "Sure you won't have a bit of toast or anything before you go?"

"Oh go on, then," said Mr. Diggory with a smile. Mrs. Weasley took a piece of buttered toast from a stack on the kitchen table, put it into the fire tongs, and transferred it into Mr. Diggory's mouth.

"Fanks," he said in a muffled voice, and then, with a small pop, vanished. Mr. Weasley rushed a hurried goodbye to the table, kissing Ginny on top of her head and messing up Ron's hair. Five minutes later , he was back in the kitchen, his robes on the right way now, dragging a comb through his hair.

"I'd better hurry — you have a good term, boys," said Mr. Weasley to Harry, Ron, and the twins, fastening a cloak over his shoulders and preparing to Disapparate.

As Mr. Weasley vanished, Bill and Charlie and Mia entered the kitchen. "Did someone say Mad-Eye?" Bill asked. "What's he been up to now?" Bill took the seat next to Lucy and took the fork from her hands and ate her last bit of sausage.

"I hate you," Lucy muttered stealing her fork back and reaching across the table for more sausage.

"He says someone tried to break into his house last night," said Mrs. Weasley.

"Mad-Eye Moody?" said George thoughtfully, spreading marmalade on his toast. "Isn't he that nutter —" Sirius made a choking laugh and both Harry and Remus rushed to thump him on the back.

"Your father thinks very highly of Mad-Eye Moody," said Mrs. Weasley sternly.

"Yeah, well, Dad collects plugs, doesn't he?" said Fred quietly as Mrs. Weasley left the room. "Birds of a feather . . ."

"Moody was a great wizard in his time," said Mia.

"He's an old friend of Dumbledore's, isn't he?" said Charlie.

"Dumbledore's not what you'd call normal, though, is he?" said Fred. "I mean, I know he's a genius and everything . . ."

"Who is Mad-Eye?" asked Harry.

"He's retired, used to work at the Ministry," said Charlie. "I met him once when Dad took me into work with him. He was an Auror — one of the best. Half the cells in Azkaban are full because of him. He made himself loads of enemies, though . . . the families of people he caught, mainly . . . and I heard he's been getting really paranoid in his old age. Doesn't trust anyone anymore. Sees Dark wizards everywhere."

Harry turned to Sirius, "Did you know him?"

"Know him? Mad-eye was mine and your dads training auror. Taught us loads." Harry seemed to brighten at the mention of his father, the table seemed to turn to Sirius. "I don't care what he used to say that old coot loved us."

"Sirius he used to threaten to hex you and James all the time."

"It was half the time and he loved us." Remus snorted into his coffee.

"Alright."

Wheres Bill, Mia and Charlie had planned to come to the train station with the group Percy, in his usual work robes didn't.

"I just can't justify taking more time off at the moment," he told them. "Mr. Crouch is really starting to rely on me."

"Yeah, you know what, Percy?" said George seriously. "I reckon he'll know your name soon."

"He knows my name," Percy's ears reddened and with a quick peak to Lucy she knew why. Aristocrats were all the same, who cared about how well you did your job when you knew somebody.

Mrs. Weasley and Remus had braved the telephone in the village post office to order four ordinary Muggle taxis to take them into London.

"Arthur tried to borrow Ministry cars for us," Mrs. Weasley whispered to Lucy as they stood in the rain-washed yard, watching the taxi drivers heaving six heavy Hogwarts trunks into their cars. "But there weren't any to spare. . . . Oh dear, they don't look happy, do they?"

Remus didn't like to tell Mrs. Weasley that Muggle taxi drivers rarely transported overexcited owls, and Pigwidgeon was making an ear splitting racket. Nor did it help that a number of Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks went off unexpectedly when Fred's trunk sprang open, causing the driver carrying it to yell with fright and pain as Crookshanks clawed his way up the man's leg.

The journey was uncomfortable, owing to the fact that they were jammed in the back of taxis with their trunks. Crookshanks took quite a while to recover from the fireworks, and by the time they entered London, Harry— Ron who sat half on Harry's lap and half on the taxi floor —Meriri who at on Lucy's lap, and Hermione were all severely scratched. They were very relieved to get out at King's Cross, even though the rain was coming down harder than ever, and they got soaked carrying their trunks across the busy road and into the station.

After having spent half her life going to and from Lucy was used to getting onto the magical platform by now. It was a simple matter of walking straight through the apparently solid barrier dividing platforms nine and ten. The only tricky part was doing this in an unobtrusive way, so as to avoid attracting Muggle attention.

They did it in groups today; Harry, Ron, and Hermione went first; they leaned casually against the barrier, chatting unconcernedly, and slid sideways through it . . . and as they did so, platform nine and three-quarters materialized in front of them. Theo, Tahani and Meriri went next. Than the twins and Charlie, and then Remus, Mia and Lucy, leaving Mrs. Weasley to travel behind them lastly.

The Hogwarts Express, a gleaming scarlet steam engine, was already there, clouds of steam billowing from it, through which the many Hogwarts students and parents on the platform appeared like dark ghosts. Pigwidgeon became noisier than ever in response to the hooting of many owls through the mist. The kids, as Charlie and Remus chatted about dragons and Sirius and Mia debated on if Snape actually showered or if he used too much hair products, set off to find seats, and were soon stowing their luggage in a compartment halfway along the train.

They then hopped back down onto the platform to say good-bye to Mrs. Weasley. Harry hugged Sirius tightly as the older male instructed the boy to be safe and raise hell; Remus told Harry to do well in his studies. Lucy, squeezing Tahani tightly listened to Charlie, who, grinning, hugged Ginny.

"I might be seeing you all sooner than you think."

"Why?" said Fred keenly.

"You'll see," said Charlie. "Just don't tell Percy I mentioned it . . . it's classified information, until such time as the Ministry sees fit to release it,' after all."

"Yeah, I sort of wish I were back at Hogwarts this year," said Bill, hands in his pockets, looking almost wistfully at the train.

"You didn't get enough adventure between me and Mia?" Lucy grinned. Bill knocked elbows with her as Mia blew a loud raspberry in her direction. Lucy turned to Theo and hugged him just as tight as she had Tahani, and than Harry before ushering them all in together.

"I don't expect anything terrible to happen this year," she looked at Harry who pointedly looked away, "But stuff will be happening meaning be safe."

"Yes mum," Theo said automatically. The four froze. An unfamiliar warmth spread through Lucy as she grinned.

"I mean ma'am, I said ma'am," Theo said panicked. Lucy though, as if she hadn't heard him, pulling him back to her for a second tighter hug. When she released him she held him at arm's length,

_I am not my mother,_ she thought._ Theo is not me and I am not my mother. I am not my mother. I am not my mother. I am—_

"Ma'am or mum I'd be more than happy to answer to either." With a warm face Theo smiled shyly at Lucy before turning away. A moment later, the whistle blew, and Mrs. Weasley chivvied them toward the train doors.

"Thanks for having me to stay, Mrs. Weasley," said Hermione as they climbed on board, closed the door, and leaned out of the window to talk to her.

"Oh, it was my pleasure, dear," said Mrs. Weasley. "I'd invite you for Christmas, but . . . well, I expect you're all going to want to stay at Hogwarts, what with . . . one thing and another."

"Mum!" said Ron irritably. "What d'you lot know that we don't?" He turned to Remus and Sirius,

"Do you two know too." Both men smiled impishly at the boy who groaned frustratedly.

"You'll find out this evening, I expect," said Mrs. Weasley, smiling. "It's going to be very exciting — mind you, I'm very glad they've changed the rules —"

"What rules?" said Harry, Ron, Fred, and George together.

"I'm sure Professor Dumbledore will tell you. . . . Now, behave, won't you? Won't you, Fred? And you, George?" The pistons hissed loudly and the train began to move.

"Tell us what's happening at Hogwarts!" Fred bellowed out of the window as Lucy and the others sped away from them. "What rules are they changing?"

Lucy cackled at the twins dramatics. Before the train had rounded the corner, she, Bill, Remus, and the others had Disapparated.

…

Lucy liked having the kids over the summer, she liked the sense of family she hadn't experienced since summers with the Weasleys. Sure she still felt that way during the holidays but there was something about living with a hoard of people you loved and cared about and Lucy had missed that.

Lucy, Bill, Mia, Sirius, Dora, Rowan, Penny and Remus all sat in the back corner table at the leaky cauldron, pints of Butterbeer and glasses of Firewhiskey sat in front of them and an empty basket of chips laid on the corner of the table waiting to be refilled.

"God Imagine if the tournamite happened when we were at school?" Mia mused.

"Lucy would've been the first to join," Dora snickered, "And then you."

"And what about it?" Lucy snuggled into Remus' side; the werewolf had an arm thrown over her shoulders and she had an open placed innocently on his thigh.

"They'd probably make you fight a troll or something."

"If Harry and the kids could do it when they were eleven whos to say I couldn't do at seventeen?"

"Fine than-uh-they'd make you fight a boggart."

"Cursing my mother a dream come true," Lucy laughed, she could remember the times she'd had to fight boggarts.

_The first time had fought a boggart been in her third year, her Defense Professor at the time— Professor Marneck — had planned a practical lesson involving a boggart he may or may not have illegal had transported from Wales to the castle._

_Nancy Wheeler, a Gryffindor girl, had gone before her; Nacy's fear had been snakes, she had turned the boggart-snake into a dancing worm. Before her Johnny Parker, another Gryffindor, had stepped up and faced a screaming banshee before turning it into a greasy looking ballet dancer._

_Lucy could feel Bill behind her as Nancy Wheeler grinned, walking to the back of the room, leaving her to face the boggart._

_The dancing worm, with a crack transformed into a familiar looking woman, one who made Lucy's stomach knot up anxiously. The boggart-version of her mother had hair its done up in a tight bun and her blouse was the same one she had been wearing the last time Lucy had seen her._

_The boggart— her mother —took a step forward and Lucy took two back. Professor Marneck straightened up from the wall he had been leaning against and Bills hand rested on Lucy's shoulder._

_Lucy could hear the whispers behind her._

_"You can do this," Bill told her and Lucy's grip on her wand tightened._

_"Where?" Her mother wondered, "Is your brother?" The whispers got louder._

_"I—I—"_

_"Where is Regulus Lucretia, whe—" The boggart lunged at her and instead of saying the proper incantation, or allowing either Bill or Professor Marneck step in Lucy stupefied the bogarted version of her mother across the room and onto the Defense Professors desk, breaking the piece of furniture, sending wooden splinters flying around the room._

_The whispers — once the scared shrieks of terror calmed down —thundered in her ears._

Bill snickered and Sirius, though silent, grinned.

"What if they made you fight infuri?" Sirius wondered "Still be confident than?" The table quieted down. "What?" Sirius wondered, "Did I say something?"

"We have, actually, well Mia did. I mean—" Lucy turned to Bill and Rowan, "That's what he was classified as, wasn't it?"

Sirius blinked at them, "When did you guys fight an infuri?" Charlie shuffled his chair closer to Mia only for the young woman to shoot up and off towards the bathroom. Both Charlie and Rowan tore off after her.

"It was our last year," Lucy said drawing both Remus' and Sirius' concerned looks to her. "The vaults—I told you about them. The last one was different."

"It had an infuri in it?" Srius wondered, he leaned forward. Lucy nodded solemnly.

"Whoever entered the vault had to duel the body of the last person who entered. If you lost you became an infuri and guarded the room."

"If you won?"

"Mia got Jacobs body back." Memories of a half decad body and her bloody friend flashed through Lucys mind. No one spoke for a minute, Bill shifted in his seat and looked at Lucy.

"It knew things, infuri they're just puppets."

"The vault knew things, Jacob never spoke, I thought we agreed—it's better if Mia—" Lucy said harshly. They had agreed to call whatever had been in the vault in infuri because the thought that the vault could somehow harness the conusioness, the soul, of a witch or wizard; the thought that the vault was conscious and that the castle they had lived in for years was far more alive than anyone gave it credit for, it scared them.

Their family was in the castle, and sometimes ignorance was bliss.

"I know, I'm just saying," Bill cut her off, "I knew things."

"It knew no more than boggart would have. I'm going to check on Mia," Lucy muttered. And with that she stood up.

* * *

**September 5, 1994**

Lucy had kicked Sirius and Remus out for the night. Bill had left early that morning and Charlie and Mia were planning on heading back that next morning so Dora, who planned to take a vacation with Penny in the upcoming weeks had thought why not return to their roots and throw a slumber party.

_This time,_ Dora had grinned, _We won't have to sneak the alcohol._

Rowan, Mia, Penny, Lucy, Dora and Merula all sat in Lucy's living room, the radio played one of the Twisted Sisters new songs and Mia, who sat on the floor in front of Penny, was getting her hair braided.

"So Mia?" Lucy wondered as Rowan passed out the cans of muggle beers Penny had brought, "How are you and Charlie? Secretly married yet?" Lucy placed a closed fist under her jaw as she balanced on her elbow. Mia chuckled.

"No, merlin Mrs. Weasley would murder us."

"But what's more romantic than a joint funeral?" Dora jokes.

"Living a long happy life with the person you love thank you very much. Besides like Charlie told his mum, what's the rush? She's the only one that's trying to hurry us down the aisle." Penny peered down over Mia with a sympathetic look on her face.

"Your parents still aren't talking to you?"

"Would you please refrain from calling those two pure-blood manics my parents? They're fucking pricks is what they are." Penny patted Mia's shoulder. Merula hummed in agreement.

"I can only imagine my families face if they found out I was shacking up with a muggleborn. If my grandfather weren't dead already it'd kill him," the witch said. Lucy raised her beer.

"Right now my mothers in hell having to deal with the fact her kids in love with a werewolf." The girls hooted and cheered for a moment, either for Lucy being in love or at the fact Walburga Black was most certainly in hell.

"How much do you love him?" Rowan wondered and Lucy looked at her friend— because as much as Rowan was more Penny and Mia's friend Lucy had found friend in Rowan Kahn —and raised both her brows at the darker skinned witch.

"You can't measure love Rowan." Lucy wasn't trying to sound rude or condescending but out of all the girls in the room Rowan was the only one who had never been in love. Sure she had liked BIll for a year or so during their schooling but whenever the opportunity of having a relationship was presented she would constantly turn it down in favor of writing for one academic journal or another. "There's no number scale; it's not like oh Remus bought me flowers I love him at a ten today or he forgot to pick up his socks I love him at one, I just love him."

"Yeah but does he steal your breath away when he smiles? How do you feel when you're around him?" Mia wanted to know. Lucy with a tender smile looked at her hands and shrugged.

"I feel at home. The Burrow's always been my home, I know I've always been able to go to Bill and feel safe and happy with him but with Remus it's more. It's like I can take a deep breath and not feel like im intruding or overstepping, I don't have to feel nervous because if I say the wrong thing suddenly I might not have a home anymore. It's—I feel at peace when I'm with Remus. Happy." It was quiet for a moment and Dora placed a hand on Lucy's knee and rubbed a circle on the curve of her kneecap.

"So Lucy," Merula grinned, "Does that mean Lupin's a beast in the sack?" Lucy didn't hesitate when throwing her couch pillow at Merual; the tender moment dead and gone.

"You are such a prick;" Lucy resorted dryly. Younger Slytherin alumni cackled.

"Come on I'm curious!" she whined.

"Yeah," Dora flopped from her seat so her head rested on Lucy's lap, "I want to know too." Lucy rolled her cousin off her and onto the floor; Penny snickered as Dora moaned woundedly. Lucy opened her beer.

"Does shagging a werewolf make Lucy kinky?" Rowan wondered. Lucy, who had only just raised her beer to her lips sputtered incomprehensibly for a moment.

"What?" Mia cried, a loud burst of laughter bubbled from her gut.

"It's just—I mean, I was a conference the other day and a topic of conversation that came up were people who dated and married animagi were technically into beastiality—"

"—Rowan I'm not into fucking beastailty—" Lucy cried, though the younger bispeictaical woman contuined on,

"—We agreed they weren't as long as they didn't have sex with their partner whilst their partner was transformed but than someone mentioned that certian people use animal like transfigurations in the bedroom because claws and fur and stuff turn them on—"

"—My boyfriend doesn't have fur—"

"—Once a month he dose," Penny pointed out and Lucy glared at her.

"—Which made me wonder if you were in fact a furry." Lucy leveled Rowan with a dry, humorous less glare.

"I'm not a furry."

"If you shagged him while he was transformed you would be though?" Merula wondered.

"I would be dead. If anyone here's a furry it's Penny and Dora!"

"Excuse me?" Her cousin asked while Penny, to Mia, who with a brow raised, denied it.

"Two Halloweens ago you went to that party in a sexy cat costume with your face transformed; whiskers and cat eyes and ears, the whole nine. And what did Penny call you?" Lucy mused. Dora's short lavender hair pinkened. "Wasn't it her little sex kitten?"

"No!" Mia said astonished, she turned, her half braided hair forgotten and looked at Penny. "Sex kitten? Are you kidding me?"

Dora lunged at her cousin who scrambled off the couch, the beer in her hands placed wobbly on the livingrooms coffee table and ran after a shierking Lucy.

"Use your wand woman!" Merula cried to both women from her seat; she turned, with a twisted grin to Rowan. "Two galleons on Dora tripping and that's how she gets Lucy."

"Raise you three that Lucy does the tripping herself," Mia challenged.

"Alright." As the two twenty-one year old witches turned to the two cousins watching both Penny and Rowan took the bowl of caramel popcorn off the table to share between themselves.

* * *

**September 6, 1994**

Lucy, as Remus in his old sweatpants and soft sweater cooked breakfast, sat on the counter next to him with a plate of toast in her lap, every so often feeding him bites.

"Can you two not be gross for once?" Sirius wondered as he walked into the kitchen, a pair of soft rabbit slippers on his feet. He still had heavy dark circles around his eyes and drooping bags, both from lack of sleep; though no matter how many times Remus begged him to get help from something other than a sleep potion the eldest Black brother would shrugs his shoulders and tell his friend he didn't need help.

"It's my house."

"Cause I went to prison," Sirius defended himself, a smile on his face as he walked over to the two of them and stole the uneaten piece of toast off the plate.

"Next time just don't go to prison," Lucy told him impishly. Remus snorted.

"Yeah," Sirius nodded, "Next time I'll make sure to tell the aurors— 'Sorry boys not really feeling Azkaban today'."

"Honest to Merlin if the auror is scared enough and like you have enough money on you that shit works!" Lucy said. Sirius and Remus both looked at the Seekers.

"And you know this how?" Remus implored.

"Bellatrix really sucked at story time," Lucy half lied. Bellatrix LeStrange, though the world knew her as a deranged serial murderer who proudly bore the dark mark, would— before Regulus' death —visit Lucy's childhood home after a successful mission and tell Regulus— as Lucy listened in from the hallway and dark corners —all about how she had managed to get out of the Ministry's grips.

_"Bangold doesn't even have the slightest clue to how dirty those aurors of her are; or how scared," Bellatrix had gloated one time. Rodolphus, her husband, sat on the sitting room sofa next to her, a rare smile on his face as he rolled his shoulders. He flexed his fingers across his legs. While though it wasn't rare that Rodolphus would visit with Bellatrix it was strange that he hadn't rushed up the stairs to talk business with Lucy and Regulus' father Orion, but rather stay by Bellatrix's side and recount what had happened to Regulus._

_"Why pay them off?" Regulus had wondered. Regulus had been twelve at the time and though Sirius hadn't yet run away he wasn't home. As per usual since he had started Hogwarts, Sirius was the Potters place. "Why give them any of our families money when you could have killed them?"_

_"Because," Rodolphus answered, his voice deep and commanding, "You can't fight a war from behind bars. Our lord trusts us, to have let us in his inner circle, and if we get caught because the Ministry is after an Auror killer how does our Lord look than? Foolish."_

Sirius snorted at the idea of Bellatrix ever telling stories.

"That nutter wouldn't know an actual bedtime story if someone spelled Babbity Rabbit to bite her in the arse."

"Probably not, but Ara she was good." When Regulus was at school, and before Ophelia had been born Araminta would invite Lucy to stay with her and her husband Rabstan, and at night after tucking her in Araminta would read her stories, each time using a different voice for the characters; and sometimes, after a partially bad nightmare she would use magic to perform a little show based off the story she was reading, just to calm Lucy's nerves.

A sad smile broke across Sirius' face.

"Araminta was a good deserved better than Rabstan."

"Rabastan loved her." Rabstan LeStrange had treated Lucy's cousins with respect; he, unlike many other pure-blood husbands, treated her like his equal, and he had loved her. Lucy had been young but she could remember how he looked at her; how whenever Araminta was sick Rabstan would care for her himself, how when she had been pregnant he had practically waited on her hand and foot.

"He was a monster," Sirius shot back, "She deserved more than him." A cord struck deep within Lucy.

"She loved him. The only person she loved more than Rab was Opehlia—Sirius you never saw them—"

"I actually grew up with them," Sirius snapped.

"—But you didn't live with them, not like I did. They would take me in whenever mother allowed it and Sirius—" Lucy placed the plate of toast next to her and hopped off the counter. "—Rabstan, he's a terrible person, I know that just as well as anyone, but him and Araminta don't try to dismiss that." At seven and eight years old Lucy hadn't been read stories like the LIttle Mermaid or Cinderella, her idea of love had come from her cousins recounting of her and Rabstan's relationship.

Rabstan— from the stories Araminta had told her growing up —and Lucy's cousin had been in love with one another since they were kids; five years old and somehow they'd known. Araminta had been a sickly child because of a blood disease she had been born with and Rabstan, the shy second son of the LeStrange family, and her had bonded over their shared loved from books. And it was as they grew older and fell more in love that Rabstan had been promised to marry Andromeda; not Araminta.

Rabstans father hadn't wanted to promise his son, second or not, to a woman who wouldn't be able to safely carry on the family name— at least that's what's Araminta had used to tell Lucy. Perhaps there was more to that than just her sickness —and so when Andromeda ran off with muggleborn Ted Tonks, already pregnant, he started looking for someone else to marry his son. At the time Lucy's uncle Cygnus was looking for someone to marry Araminta, he had a few suitors lined up; including Rabstans best friend at the time, Evertt Travers.

Only Rabstan, who never spoke back to his father, had always been the good obedient son, finally put his foot down because even if it meant disownment, or having to duel his own father and even if it meant kick his best friends ass in the end, he was going to marry Araminta Black because he loved her more than anything.

Sirius opened his mouth to resort only for both Harry and Theos owls, Hedwig and Robespierre to fly through the open kitchen window.

Sirius took the letter from Hedwig as Lucy handed each owl bits and pieces of toast, and she took the letter from Robesierre.

In Theos handwriting the words Lucy and mum were crossed out five times before he had given up and just left the word Dear as the header.

**Howarts is hosting the Triwizard Tournament; I'm sure you already knew that though. The Twins want to compete, but I'm sure you Mrs. Weasley could see that coming when you found out. Though I'm not sure if you knew what schools we're going to be hosting. We're going to be competing with Beauxbatons and Dumstrang. Most of us are excited; Quidditch is canceled so both Tahani and Ginny are in a foul mood but hopefully that changes before the other schools try to get here. **

**We— the Grffyindors and I —had Moody's class today. He knew who I was; well he knew most of the class. He knew you, when he asked how my father was and I told him I was your ward now he asked about you. I said you were fine. He showed us the unforgivables, he enlarged a spider and it screamed. I didn't think spiders could scream. Harry won't say anything, and neither will Longbottom or Meiri, but the lesson really messed them all up. **

**Ron, Tahani, and the others and I all tried to get Meiri and Harry to open up but the most I could get out of Harry was that he was fine and Meiri won't talk at all about the lesson to anyone, not to me or Ron.**

**I guess I'm really writing this because I don't know how to talk to Meiri or Harry about it and maybe that's hypocritical because I was trying to make them talk. But you always said I could talk to you. It's not like my father ever used an unforgivable on me, he didn't it's just that I know he was a Death Eater and I know he used those curses on people and I don't know what ever really stopped him from using them on me. He murdered my mother so why not me? Why would he kill her and other innocent people but not someone who witnessed his crimes? It wasn't like he loved me, it wasn't really even a son to him. **

**I'm sorry for bothering you. Theo.**

"Moody's teaching the kids about unforgivables," Lucy said when she was done reading Theos letter.

"It's fourth year curriculum," Remus said plainly.

"He's showing it to them." Sirius looked up from the two pages of letter Harry had written and Remus turned to Lucy.

"He's what?" Sirius stressed.

"He's showing the kids the unforgivables; Theo says it bothered Harry but he won't speak about it, neither will Meiri." From what Lucy could remember Bill saying about his uncles Fabian and Gideon they had been killed a few months after the McKinnons, only steps away from the house where they had left a sleeping fourteen month year old Meiri in order to get groceries.

Apparently she could see the whole thing from the window that overlooked her crib.

Lucy knew Meiri couldn't remember what she had seen but the fact of the matter was, that just over a year old, recently after losing her mother and her mother's side of the family, she had seen her father and her uncle and the five Death Eaters they had taken down with them, all die brutal and bloody deaths.

"Harry doesn't mention it in his letters," Sirius with a stricken face said.

"He probably didn't want to worry you Padfoot," Remus said.

"I'm his godfather it's my job to worry about him."

"He doesn't get that yet; and Theo is he okay?" Remus wondered.

"He's grappling with the fact that his fathers an evil person; apparently Moody asked how he was." Sirius nodded.

"Moody was the Auror that arrested Nott for the Sutherland murders."

Lucy blew a breath of hot air out her nose, "Theo doesn't get why his father never cursed him—killed him. Edgar killed innocent people and his wife so why not his son? Merlin I could kill that man!" Lucy pushed herself away from the table and stood up; Remus reached over to her and pulled her against his chest.

"We're not murdering Edgar Nott."

"Fine than I murder him and you just help with the body," Lucy mused. Remus chuckled laconically.

"No more murder, alright."

"Fine but I'm writing Theo and seeing if he can meet me in Hogsmeade Saturday."

"The first HOgsmead trip is in a month and a half," Remus said both Lucy and Sirius looked at him.

"I'm sorry Moony," Sirius drawled, "But since when have you ever abided by the Hogsmead sheducal?"

* * *

**September 10, 1994**

Sirius, who had planned on meeting Harry, had taken the train to Hogsmead station whilst Lucy had flown.

Lucy, dressed to protect herself from the cold September air, had worn a stolen jumper from Remus and the heavy leather jacket Bill had given her for her birthday. She met both boys at the gate surrounding the shrieking shack.

Walking up from behind the boys she could see the two of them talking, their elbows knocked against each other as they shared a laugh at something Harry had said and at his resort the bespectacled boy flipped Theo off.

"Hey now," Lucy chidded teasingly, "Be nice now." Both boys whipped around.

"Lucy!" Harry grinned, Theo silently smiled next to him. Harry had the invisibility cloak shoved into his pants pocket and Theo had the Marauders Map, folded up and cleared of any moving ink hanging out his front jacket pocket

"Boys," Lucy beamed, she pulled them both into a hug when she reached them only to pull away with a pout a moment later.

"Theodore Cankerous Nott so help me if you didn't bring a jacket."

"I'm not cold," Theo muttered.

"He's freezing. He just fell asleep in the Hufflepuff common room last night and forgot to bring a jacket," Harry told Lucy.

"Merlin I hate you Potter," Theo resorted. Lucy rolled her eyes and swept her jacket off her shoulders and onto his; though both Harry and Theo were tall for their year Lucy was still a head and a half taller than either boy and so the cuffs of her jacket hit Theos thighs.

"If I ask why you fell asleep in the Hufflepuff common room—"

"—It's not like that," Theo rushed out with a pink face. Lucy looked at Harry.

"Meiri's been having nightmares, she won't let Ron or anyone else help so Meiri's roommates have been helping Theo's sneak in and out—"

"—Merlin Potter forget Voldemort I'm going to murder you—" Theo cut in, glaring at Harry. Harry didn't pay Theo any attention because he continued on as if Theo hadn't spoken.

"—of the Hufflepuff common room before after Meiri falls asleep and before anyone else wakes up just to calm her down if she doesn have one. Only from what Diggory says—"

"—I'd say fuck Cedric Diggory but from how red you turned when he came up to you this monring I think you might take that as a directive—" Harry for a moment froze. His skin became several shades darker and the glare he shot Theo was thunderous.

Harry with a stony face turned to Lucy.

"—Meiri's roommates woke up to them cuddling this morning and Diggory asked me if I could keep him out Meiri's bed cause next time he catches them he's going to Professor Sprout." Theo took his wand out and with a quick flick Harry's messy black hair became a bright pink color.

"Alright-alright," Lucy said plucking Theos wand from his hand, "No more sneaking into Meiri's bed—"

"—I didn't she had a nightmare and the next thing I know she's clinging to me—"

"—I'll talk to Mrs. Weasley about talking to Meiri, also no more transfiguration justice, that shit can end badly. You want revenge you slip a potion into their drink or conditioner and be done with it." That way none of the kids were more likely to kill another once the wands came out.

A sharp bark broke from behind Lucy and bounding down the hill was a large, shaggy black dog. Harry's face brightened at the sight of Sirius' animagus form Padfoot. The dog pounced from the bottom of the hill and onto Harry, knocking the boy who lived into the chain link fence.

"Pad-Sir-Padfoot!" Harry laughed, pushing the jolly dog away from him. Sirius, once off Harry transformed looking happier than he had since Harry had left for school. Lucy stepped back and held out her arm for Theo to take.

"I'll see you later Harry okay?" Beaming, Harry nodded back, and as Sirius lead Harry in one direction Lucy lead Theo in the other.

…

The pair of them sat at a dusty corner table in the Hogshead inn and tavern. Theo had a butterbeer in front of him and Lucy had a slice of shepards pie.

"I can talk to Moody," Lucy suggested, "If he plans to put you guys under the curses I can ask him to expend you, if it makes you too uncomfortable."

"No, I'll be, I'm fine. Moody's right we should know how to fight them off. Especially the imperius, that way I never end up like my father." Theo said darkly, glaring at his drink as he did so. Like many Death Eaters who had bought their trails Edgar NOtt had claimed that he had been spelled by an actual Death Eater and all the crimes he had committed had been done so under the imperius curse.

Lucy's expression turned stormy.

"He said that!" She demanded to know. If Moody had, in front of, or even after the class, implied or compared Theo to his father Lucy Black would raise hell. There were twelve seats on the board of governors and while Lucy had given her seat to Ted in order to mess with the stuff pure-bloods who sat on the board with him, she would go storming over to her cousins house demanding Ted called a meeting to get Dumbledore to fire Moody.

"No—sort of. It was a passing comment. Someone asked why we needed to experience it to learn about it and he said so that some of us didn't end up like our parents claiming to have been cursed in front of Wizgnmot."

"I'll kick his ass." Best auror ever or not Lucy was ready to drag Sirius up to the castle and kick Alistar Moody's ass right out the door.

"Don't do that," Theo begged, "People will know I went to you and I don't want to be labeled a wuss." Lucy got where he was coming from,

"But still, Theo if he's making comments like that, comments I know affect you—"

"—Leave it," Theo begged, "Please. I don't want to be known as a cry baby. Malfoy goes to his father constantly, I don't want to be like that."

Lucy bit her lip and frowned.

"Fine, but the moment you change your mind I'm here, okay. I don't care if you owl me in the middle of a game, I'm kicking his ass." And Theo smiled, it was a large smile that showed his perfect teeth and the top of his pink gums.

"Thanks mum."_ I am not my mother. I am not my mother. I am not my mother._

* * *

**September 15, 1994**

Lucy had battle giant spiders, she had gone up against Death Eaters and boggarts and ice knights to boot, and yet Oscar Orlando Fenwick was the scariest. Oscar was Merwyn and Michelle's thirteen month old son.

He had his father's ears and his mothers big brown eyes and he was most importantly, a baby.

Lucy had dealt with babies before; when the Weasley had first opened their homes to her Rom, Meiri and Ginny had all been under two, and before that when she had been nine Ophelia had been born so it wasn't that she was was novanced when it came to handling babies, it was just the fact every time she picked the little boy up she felt like she was going to hurt him, so she opted to not pick him up.

Or touch him if she could help it.

And yet here he was crying. Toys were scattered around them and Lucy, cross legged sat in front of him making silly faces and funny sounds; her hand was settled in her hand, the tip aflamed with differently colored lights; but no matter what she did he continued to cry.

Remus appeared in the fireplace, his messenger bag over his shoulder and a startled look on his face at the sight of the wailing infant. Lucy sighed with relief at the sight of him.

"Lucy, love? Why is there a baby in front of you?" He blinked twice to make sure it wasn't a hallucination. Lucy stood up and sidestepped the crying baby.

"Merwyn and Michelle had to go to St. Mungos, her mother's taking a turn for the worst and I was the first person they thought of." Remus set his bag on the couch and picked Oscar up off the floor; the baby quieted as Remus nestled him in his arms; Oscars chubby baby hands clung to Remus; and Remus began to bounce off his feet.

"So that's all you wanted huh? Someone to pick you up." Remus with a questioning look. Looked at Lucy.

"I couldn't,: she told him. A concerned look flashed in his eyes,

"Did you hurt your arm?" Lucy crumpled against the couch and sat with her head in her hands and growled at herself. Remus, placing Oscar on his knee in order to continue to bounce him, sat next to her. Through her fingers Lucy looked at Remus,

"I was scared to hurt him. What if I picked him up to harshly or I dropped him or something else?"

"You wouldn't," Remus told her confidently.

"Probably not but what if I did? I've never been alone with a baby before, I was terrified that between when Merwyn dropped him off and you or Sirius came back that I'd have fucked up big time and totally ruined Merwyn and Michelle's kid."

"I was the same way when Harry was born, you know. So was James and Lily and actually the only person confident in handling a baby was Sirius—cause of you, actually. But do you know what I did when James and Lily left me alone with Harry that first time?" Lucy shook her head.

"I called Peter because I was so scared that somehow I'd hurt Harry because I was this monster. My father had always been vocal about werewolves growing up, it's why I'd been bitten and so when James handed me Harry and left all I kept hearing was what my father used to say about werewolves. What the prophet would say; what everyone was saying."

"What changed?"

"Peter almost dropped Harry. Total accident—I fucking hope it was, but at that moment when I caught Harry I relaised that Peter, perfectly normal, safe—" Remus scoffed, "—Peter was more a danger to Harry than I was and that until James came back Harry needed me. Just like this guy needs you." Remus handed Oscar over to Lucy who situated the infant in her arms.

"Hey," Lucy said to the baby, "Sorry about before, but uh, we're cool now right?" Oscar smiled brightly at Lucy who smiled back and than up at Remus who with a mesmerised look was already staring at the pair of them.

"Hey Remus?" Lucy murmured, the werewolf blinked rapidly,

"Uh yeah."

"Just checking, hot potato with Oscar is a no go right." Remus opened his mouth only to shut it; he stretched his arms out,

"You're a menace give me the baby back."

"Never!" And Remus lunged playfully, tickling both her and Oscar; the both of them laughing jovially.

...

Later that night with the baby bag slung over his shoulder and Oscar in his arms Merwyn Fenwick stood on the porch of Constellation Commeracy.

"Thank you," Merwyn said, "I know it was last minute but thanks." Lucy ran a hand through her hair.

"It was no problem, Remus helped, a lot, actually." Merwyn brightened at that.

"You know Michelle knew she was ready to have kids with me after we got saddled with helping Birch watch his nieces." Lucy blushed at the implication.

"No, I don't—kids of my own are different. I can't give them back, I can like seriously screw them up."

"Here's a secret I've learned over the past year: all parents screw up their kids in some way or another, no matter what you do." Lucy grimace at the thought that no matter what she did she'd screw her hypothetical kids up.

"Different approach," Merwyn laughed somewhat panicked at what was obviously Lucy's facial expressions, "You're not your mum Lucy. None of us know what you went though but we've seen your back, and what I'm trying to say is I've seen you with the Weasley kids and Potter and your lot now and you'd make a good mum. You care, a lot, and I get that you're scared to put any kid you have through what you went through, I do, but you're not your mum, you're not your dad or your brothers, you're yourself. You've got to remember that."

_I am not my mother. I am not._

* * *

**September 24, 1995**

_The house smells like gingerbread cookies, Lucy's wearing a knitted Weasley sweater she's never seen and Sirius, who she passes in the hall looks older. He looks happier, his hair is up in a bun and he too is wearing a Weasley sweater._

_"Merry Christmas goose!" he kisses her brow before cotuining to walk dow the hall. Lucy walks twards the livingtoom where the kids— all older —are sitting. Tahani is sixteen or seventeen and sharing the love seat with Ginny Weasley who's legs are strewn over Tahani's; and Theo, who has Meiri in his lap looks older as well, as dose Harry who's play wresting with a toddler is on the floor._

_The toddler, a little boy with messy black hair and silver eyes and a slightly crooked nose turns as he pins an overdramtic and dying Harry under his tiny body, the tiny green Weasley sweater he's wearing had a silver R in the middle._

_"Mummy!" The boy cheers, Tahani looks up from the book and Theo looks away from Meiri and Lucy is frozen because that little boy is talking to her, calling her mummy. But she can't be, can she? She can't rememeber having ever been pregant or giving birth. "Mummy! I beat Harry!"_

_"You didn't hurt Harry did you love?" She says without meaning too._

_"Not-uh," the little boy says, he hops off Harry and races around the couch and love seat and bounces off her legs before Lucy picks him up._

_"Sides mummy I can't hurt Harry, Ron says Harry is-is in-in-invable!"_

_"Invinceable?" Lucy chuckles and the toddler nods enthusatically._

_"Yeah!" She hums, "Harry is not invisible, no matter what he or Ron belive, you hear me Harry James, come home after that last mission like you did and not even Sirius will save you."_

_"Come on Lucy, Dora and Ron have my back, nothings going to happen." She tutted, just as Mrs. Weasley would do with the twins she tutted at Harry._

_A babies cry echoed through the house and atuomatically lucy turned. She swiveled back to Harry._

_"That may be but it still worries me." The fireplace lit up and out stepped, with snow on his shoulders, Remus. He ran a hand through his hair and the gold of a wedding band glittered around his ring finger._

_"I got Hope don't worry!" Sirius called and somewhere deep inside Lucy knew that hope wouldn't be her neice but rather her daughter. She knew she had two kids. She couldn't remeber having two kids but it felt right, and nice and the house felt warm and the boy in her arms felt like he belonged there and the ring on Remus' finger felt like it was meant to be there, just like the ring on hers did._

_"Daddy!" The little boy in her arms sqirmed._

_"Regulus John let me put you down first before you try to take off," Lucy laughed._

Lucy sat up in bed, Remus, with his arm thrown over her coinuted to snore soundly besides her. She looked over at his sleeping form; he was sleeping, not standing in the bright lit living room. He and weren't married, they didn't have kids together. Harry and Theo and the others were fourteen, Tahani was twelve; it had all been a dream.

Lucy could feel her heart beating in her chest rapidly. She turned and looked at the outline of Remus' sleeping figure.

It had all been a dream, and though she wouldn't say it because the very thought it hadn't been had terrified her when she first woke up, part of her, a small tiny part of her, wanted it to be real. She wanted the wedding band around Remus' finger and she wanted a ring of her own and she wanted the two kids that called her mummy.

Lucy squeezed her eyes shut tightly. She remembers how happy the kids— Theo, Harry and Tahani, not the little boy, not Regulus —had been in the dream. That would be enough, for them to be as happy as they had been in the dream. She stuffed the want for more back into the corners of her mind and breathed.

If the kids were happy and healthy and okay that would be enough.

_I am not my mother,_ Lucy thought,_ All I need is for the kids to be okay. I am not my mother._

* * *

**a/n: so im back; yey! i meant to get this chapter out weeks ago but between school and work and the fact that my birthday was the 6th and my brothers was just last sunday and the holidays are rolling up my life has been hectic, but if you're reading this I wanna say thanks for sticking with me and the story, it means a ton! (please leave a comment! because that dose help the creativity flow!) **


	16. October 1994 - chapter sixteen

**October 2, 1994**

It had been Remus' idea; for the five of them to get together and drink and reminisce. It was a bad idea that had somehow happened and if someone was brutally murdered by the end of the night and the Aurors were called before she left that's what Lucy would tell them; it was Remus' idea.

Sirius and Andromeda, at the kitchen table in Constellation Commorancy sat on one side and Claudia and Narcissa sat on the other whilst Lucy sat at the head of the table. Each of them had a glass full of the strongest firewhiskey Kreature could get his hands on and Lucy knew there were several dozen or so more bottles in the houses wine cellar.

The air in the room was thick and palpabile— from both awkwardness and tension —and Lucy as she raised her glass to her lips was sure this would never be happening again.

But was happening at that moment. She set her glass down.

"Regulus sang me to sleep once," Lucy said suddenly, both former Black sisters stopped glaring at the other and turned to Lucy as Sirius' shoulders dropped almost thankfully and he too looked at her. Claudia however didn't, with her shoulders hunched over and eyes glued to the full glass in front of her the only thing that changed was that her breath hitched in her throat.

_Little Lucy Black was crying; something not uncommon at number twelve Grimmauld Place. Her knees were once more bloody and ached and all she wanted was her brother back. How could he leave me? Lucy sobbed into her pillow._

_"Lucretia?" A voice, her other brothers voice, sounded through the door, "I'm coming in, okay." Lucy made an ugly choking sound as she nodded, snot and tears got all over her silk pillow case as Regulus opened the door. He shut it behind him quietly and though he was only fourteen he looked leagues older than that; something heavy weighed in his eyes._

_"Lucy," he said almost mournfully as he looked at his sister and the bloody hem of her expensive dress. "What happened?" He crouched in front of her and Lucy threw her tiny arms around his neck._

_"I wanted to see father and mother caught me." Orion Black was sick, another disease plaguing the Black family genetics come to light, and everyone in the house knew it was better to leave the man alone to die than crowd around him. To remember him as the tall, powerful wizard who made his political opponents quake in their shoes, not the weak husk of a man he had been reduced too; it was what he wanted._

_But at only five Lucy didn't understand that. She knew her father was sick and she knew she wasn't allowed on the top floor to see him but she was five and all she wanted was her father._

"I was—you had just left home," Lucy said to Sirius, "And I was crying, he heard. I have no idea where he was but he had just come home and he'd been passing by my room when he heard me and I wouldn't stop crying. He helped me into my pajamas— mother had made me kneel on rice for hours —and he sang me to sleep. When I woke up a few hours later he was still there. He was still in the clothes he was wearing when he gone out."

"What-What did he sing?" Claudia wondered. Lucy smiled sorrowfully.

"Twinkle twinkle little star," Lucy took another sip, she laughed into her drink, "Reggie was talented in a lot of things, singing though, he was terrible at." Everyone at the table huffed a laugh.

"He did a lot to make me feel better after mother had hurt me."

_Regulus Black was fifteen and home for Christmas, Lucy was seven and she sat in Grimmauld Places parlor with her knees drawn to her chest. It was late, their mother had gone to bed hours ago and the only light in the room was from the ever burning fireplace._

_"Lucy?" Regulus wondered from the half open doorway of the parlor, Lucy jumped and turned to face her brother, her chin, once she released it was her brother behind her, rested on top of the back of the deep green sofa. "What are you doing up?"_

_The necklace Sirius had given Lucy before he had left hung around her neck, something she stopped doing when she realized it sent her mother into an angry fit whenever the Black matriarch caught sight of it._

_The bruise from when her mother had smacked her earlier that day was hard to see in only the fire light but Lucy could feel her brother staring at it; she smiled broadly despite the hurt. She was missing one of her front teeth and two on the bottom, her tongue stuck out from the spaces._

_"Waiting for Santa, I wrote to him months ago I asked for a new broom and for him to bring Sirius home and I don't want to miss him." Regulus eyes shut for a moment and his shoulders slumped._

_When his eyes opened he smiled back at her the same way Sirius always had, easy going and the way Lucy used to dream of her parents looking at her. Happily._

_"Santa doesn't come if you're up, you should know that by now." Regulus moved to the sofa and picked Lucy up from the other side of the couch. "I'll tuck you in now so by the time you do wake up Santa will have brought you presents, okay?"_

_"Okay! Hey Reggie!" Lucy leaned back and beamed at him, "I'm happy you decided to come for Christmas, mother said you wanted to spend it with Claudia."_

"_I did, but then I thought how could I leave you on Christmas." Lucy planted a kiss on her brother's cheek._

_"_Kreature told me, years later, that mother hadn't bought a single preset that year. At least not for me," Lucy let out a tense chuckle and she reached for the bottomless of whiskey, she poured more than socially acceptable into her glass. "But Reggie had spent all night out waking up store clerks to buy me presents. The doll house he'd gotten me stopped working after his death—it wasn't even magical, he'd gone to muggle London to buy me presents because our own mother hadn't."

Both Claudia and Andromeda squeezed her knees under the table and Lucy let out an ugly choked back sob. She missed her brother.

"He adored you," Claudia told Lucy, "Honestly, no one ever did it to his face but they spoke about him behind his back. They thought it was weird that his elf and that the portrait of his great great grandfather visited him every night but Barry and I, we were the only ones that knew why though."

To check on her, Lucy already knew that, she knew that Regulus had instructed both Great-grandfather Phineas and Kreature to look out for her while he was away at school.

"He loved you too," Lucy told Claudia and the rest that remained of the Black family nodded.

"Uncle Alphard left him his house as an early wedding present and every so often I would find him doodling the houses floor plan from memory, he would put the name of whatever future kid he wanted with you in one box and the names changed a lot but I'm sure if someone ever goes through his old school books they'll find a dozen and a half different floor plans for the same house."

"He always did call you a snoop," Claudia giggles, tears streamed down her face.

"There wasn't a minute from the moment you pushed him in that pond that Reg didn't want to marry you," Sirius said. "He always made that clear to our parents. If they wanted to force him into a contract fine but it would be with you."

"Claudia this and Claudia that I'm sure before he died our father wanted to marry you and Reg if only to get him to shut up for a moment."

"Ara thought it was adorable," Andromeda said, "It reminded her of her and Rabastan in a way." Narcissa drank at the mention of her dead sister.

"He used to play house with me whenever I wanted it as long as Lucy could be our child, he wanted a family," Claudia told them. "He wanted a daughter, to show he could do it right."

"He would have been an amazing father," Lucy said, "Merlin knows I wished more than once that he or Ara were my parents."

The room settled for a moment, the leaves in the yard rustled in the wind.

"He broke grandmother Irma's vase; the goblin made one she got on her wedding day," Sirius said after a minute. Everyone at the table nodded, they could recall the large child side vase that sat in Grimmauld Places sitting room. "He was six, you—" Sirius said to Lucy, who used the ball of her palm to wipe away tears that columned to fall, "—Weren't even born yet but he was flying in the house when he wasn't supposed to be and he had broken the vase. I took the blame, I told Reg to hide behind the sofa and when mother dearest came in she saw me holding the broom."

"What'd she do?" Lucy wondered. She knew she was the only one of her siblings for their mother to have ever hurt physically and part of her was glad neither of her brothers had experienced what she had but another part, the part that crowed in the back of her mind in her darkest of times— the one that sounded far too much like her mother —wanted them to have gone through what she had. Part of her wanted to know that what had happened was all their mother and that it wasn't because she was unlovable or a monster that her mother could spot early on. She didn't want to feel alone.

"Burned the broom. Uncle Alphard had gotten it for me, Reg had gone into my room and taken it. Mother said I could fly again when I made the house team," Sirius smiled sourly, "Mum and dad though, Jamsie's parents, they got my bike in the end which I love more than I could ever love a broom but at the time I had been livid at Reg."

Lucy caught Andromeda clutching at Sirius' hand under the table. She also caught the unshed tears in her brothers eyes, ones he quickly blinked away. "I don't think I ever properly apologized."

"He knew you loved him," Narcissa said. It was the first time she had spoken since having sat down and her voice was heavy and thick, and raw with quivering emotions.

She looked at Andromeda who stared back at her.

"After you ran away, he came to me and Araminta, he asked if it got better, the hurt that comes with knowing your older sibling abandoned you—"

"—I didn't abandon you," Andromeda cut in to her sister.

"You didn't take me with you," Narcissa rebutted.

"You wouldn't have come, you loved that life— you love it —being the perfect pureblood Princess was something you took joy in and you know it," Andromeda snapped with her finger out and waving in front of her in Narcissa direction.

"I loved my sisters more. You didn't give me the chance to pick." There was more to that sentence, Lucy could hear it, but whatever the unsaid words were, they were lost when Andromeda coolly looked at her youngest sister.

"Father tried to kill me. He almost killed Dora. He would have killed, tried to kill, you too if you had come."

"I know," Narcissa said, "I told Regulus when he came to me that while he'll always love you, blood traitor or not, and that you'll love him, some siblings aren't meant to be friends." Andromeda jaw clenched.

"Did he?" Sirius wonder, "Love me, still? I mean after what I said to him before I left, what I said to him when we were at school, I wouldn't blame him."

"Of course he did," Claudia said to Sirius, "He adored you, he was furious at you for picking Potter over him—" it was a sentiment both Lucy knew she and her brother had shared, one they could still share dead or not,

"—I didn't pick James over him—"

"—But that's what it felt like," Lucy said to Sirius, "When you left us to live with them, when you would spend most of your holiday with them, when you missed Christmas morning because you had spent Christmas Eve with them that's what it felt like." Sirius' eyes softened in Lucy's direction.

"I couldn't stay in that house anymore. It wasn't you and it wasn't Reg."

"Yeah," Claudia said softly, "In the end, he got it." It's what got him killed.

* * *

**October 5, 1995**

Lucy had seen Mr. and Mrs. Weasley leave for date nights during the summers she would stay with them at Burrow. Mrs. Weasley would always wear one of the few nice skirts she had or the nice green dress she always said she kept in the back of her closet, and Mr. Weasley would shine his shoes and part his thinning his differently as he stood in front of the door, telling Bill, Lucy and Charlie the rules that they already know before imparting that while Bill and Lucy were in charge Lucy was in charge of Bill and he was in charge of her.

She never thought she would have a date night, never thought that she would be domesticated enough to schedule one beforehand because she was a Black, a villain waiting to paint the Daily Prophets front page red, but there she was, in front of the mirror in her bedroom bathroom, with lipstick and eyeliner that Cissy had long ago showed her how to properly apply and black and while pin stopped pants ready to let Remus sweep her off her feet.

As if he hadn't already done it, but Mrs. Weasley was right—

_At sixteen Lucy often wondered why Mr. and Mrs. Weasley went on date nights, how they never ended up fighting, at least in front of her and the others, and how they managed to do happy. Lucy had never seen a couple so happy._

_So she asked, none of the children were up and Mr. Weasley had already left for work; Mrs. Weasley was in the kitchen making eggs and sausage._

_"Mrs. Weasley?" The red haired woman turned around._

_"Lucy dear, good morning!"_

_"Morning Mrs. Weasley," Lucy took her regular seat and Mrs. Weasley frowned at her._

_"Is everything alright dearly. Did you have another nightmare?"_

_"No, no," Lucy shook her head. She hadn't had a nightmare since finals, it was almost a moment into holiday vacation. "I just—I wanted to ask you something, if that was okay."_

_Wiping her hands on her apron, smiling like usual, Mrs. Weasley waves her wand so the skillet would cook the sausage and the pan and spatula would cook the eggs themselves._

_Holding her hands in a way Lucy's own mother never would— or had —Mrs. Weasley sat across the table from the young witch._

_"Now what's on your mind?"_

_"You and Mr. Weasley, I mean I don't—I don't want to offend or anything but you've been married a while, haven't you?"_

_"Seventeen years." It wasn't a secret that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had had a shotgun wedding._

_"How do you still love him? I mean, you guys go on dates and you don't fight in front of us and I don't get how you do it?"_

_"What do you mean?" Mrs. Weasleys eyebrows knitted together._

_"How haven't you—hasn't Mr. Weasley woken up one day and relaxed you don't want this anymore?" Mrs. Weasley pressed her lips together as if to hold back the floodgates of everything she wanted to say, which scared Lucy because what if one of them was 'Get out' only to sigh._

_She squeezed Lucy's hands tighter._

_"It's because of those date nights that Arthur and I have made it this far. That and never going to bed angry."_

_"Really?" Mrs. Weasley nodded._

_"Those date nights help remind the both of us why we fell in love with each other. Ever since we started having kids Arthur and I haven't gotten a lot of time together, which is okay because we love you all, but sometimes between all the diapers and the skinned knees it's hard to remember why Arthur's eyes sparkle differently from the man at the bookstore and a few hours once a week, with just the two of us, helps remind me. I know it helps him."_

_"Oh, okay." It made sense in a way. Sort of; a stray thought crossed her mind, Perhaps I'll understand when I fall in love._

And she did. It was nice to remember why you had fallen in love with someone, to remind them why they had fallen in love with you. To spend time with them for just a little without the stress of life weighing down on you.

When Lucy exited the bathroom, just as Mr. Weasley would stand in front of the Burrows door Remus stood in front of Constellation Commeracys, chatting with Sirius who was cleverer in Greece from working on his bike all day.

Remus looked at Lucy before looking at Sirius before quickly looked back at Lucy with a soft look in his eyes, a kind smile on his face.

"You look great," Remus told Lucy as she grabbed the leather jacket Bill had given her for her birthday.

"You do too," Lucy told him. He wasn't wearing anything different, a soft newer sweater she had seen before, jeans that didn't wear at the knees or have a hole in the thigh nor were frayed at the cuffs, and shoes that he wore everyday.

Remus pecked Lucy's lips softly, only to draw back when Sirius let out a throaty cough. Both Lucy and Remus turned to Sirius who with a large smile on his crossed his arms. Remus wrapped an arm around Lucy's waist while she leaned against his shoulder.

"Now see here Mr. Lupin—"

"—What are you doing Padfoot?—"

"—Let me have this Moony," Sirius said, "Now see here Mr. Lupin I expect both you and Lucreatia here—"

"—Call me my full name again and see what happens Sirius—" paying her no mind the oldest Black continued on,

"To be home eleven o'clock sharp, and I'll know if you anything unsavory towards her, my people will be watching."

"Your people?" Remus wondered with a raised brow. Biting back his own smile the werewolf turned to Lucy. "He has people."

"He people need to remind him next time he calls me Lucretia I'm sucking your dick in his bikes sidecar." With a loud offended gasp Sirius turned a bright Gryffindor red.

"You wouldn't dare!" Lucy's own eyebrow raised.

"When has saying that to a former-Slytherin ever worked in your favor brother?" With a glare Sirius looked at his sister.

"Try to have a little fun and you threaten to defile my baby, bullshit," Sirius muttered like a petulant child. He then, after a second, smiled at both Remus and Lucy. Clapping Remus on the shoulder he took a step back.

"Have fun kids, don't do anything too crazy."

"Stop daring me to call your bluffs!"

"Make me Goose!"

…

Side along apparition sucked; anyone who said otherwise was a muggle or had just never experienced because Lucy, who had been dealing with it since she was a small child was sure the experience had just gotten worse since her own adolescence.

Remus, who had apperated them to a small town on the northwest coast. Whiby on one side was surrounded by the North Sea, on the other three sides the beach front town was surrounded by woods.

Lucy and Remus landed in an alleyway between a drugstore and a dry cleaners.

"The house I lived in before coming to work as a Professor, the one my father left me is just outside the town, but that's not why we're here."

"Why are we here?" Lucy wondered, still holding his hand.

"You said you've never been on a real date, I want to take you on one." Warmth bloomed in Lucy's chest. Coyly she turned to him and smiled up at him threw her lashes, flirting was not something Lucy had ever been anything more than a novance in, but there was something prideful about seeing Remus' Adam's apple bob up and down as he grinned down at her, molding himself to fit against her.

"And what's a real date entail Messr Mooney?"

"Dinner, a movie or a movie and dinner. A walk in the park." Lucy's lips ghosted over Remus' and his mustache tickled the space between her nose and upper lip.

"And after that?" She wondered.

"I drop you off at your door and kiss you good night," his eyes shut and slowly he lead Lucy's back to rest against the brick wall behind her. It was easy to forget they were in a public alleyway because the only thing swimming in Lucy's mind was Remus, from the feel of his lips against hers to the heat of his palm as it rested against the space between her pants and her crop top, and how much she loved him.

She loved him. She loved him. She loved him. She—Lucy's breathing hitched softly as Remus kissed her, one hand rested next to her head on the wall and his other groped at her waist; both her index fingers hooked around the loops of his jeans as she pulled Remus forward.

When he broke away for air a moment Lucy breathed. "I love you," she told him and he lit up with a large glowing smile.

"I love you too, now come on," detangling himself from Lucy, "I was here earlier to see the movie times and Time Cop starts in—" Remus looked at his watch, "Twenty minutes."

"What the fuck is Time Cop?" Lucy wondered as Remus, holding her hand, led her out of the alleyway and onto the deserted muggle street that housed the cinema at the end of the block.

"It's a movie, the paper says it's about an American police officer—" Lucy shot a confused look at Remus who clarified that police officers were the muggle version of Aurors, "—In 2004, when time travel has been made possible. The movies all about him following an interconnected web of episodes in his own life as he fights time-travel crime and investigates the politician's plans."

"The plot sounds insane," Lucy said with a good natured laugh.

"So you don't want to watch it?"

"Of course I do, I mean as long as we sit in the back," she flirted. Turning pink Remus seemed to almost swallow his own tongue. Giggling, Lucy grinned.

"Mr. Lupin!" Both Lucy and Remus turned to see two young teens, no older than Theo and Harry waving at Remus.

One, the boy on the left, wore a too big button down shirt and ripped jeans while the girl on his right, whos bright golden hair had been been braided into two twin braids wore bright pink sneakers that lit up with eatery step she took.

"Wendell! Jessica!" Remus smiled at the young teens, "It's good to see you again." Remus turned to Lucy, "My last job as a construction worker in Stainsacre was with their father, he used to bring them to work with him on the weekends."

"Mr. Lupin used to help us with our homework!" The boy, Wendell boasted.

"He did," his sister nodded, "But are you on a date Mr. Lupin?" Remus chuckled at the girls bold question and nodded.

"I am, my girlfriend Lucy and I meet at the school I told you I was going to work at."

"Does this mean you're coming back to work with our dad or are you still at that school?"

"Neither," Remus said, "Lucy and I live over near Ravenstown—"

"—Where's that?" Wendell wanted to know.

"—Closer to Liverpool than Leeds," Lucy answered and the boy's eyes widened because 'Why are you over here if you live over there?'

"Because I wanted to show Lucy the place I've been living the past seventeen years."

"Seventeen years?" The boy gasps, "How old are you Mr. Lupin?" His sister Jessica lunches him in the shoulder.

"You can't ask grown ups that question!"

"Sure I can, I just can't ask women that question and it's not like I asked Mr. Lupins girlfriend how old she was but—" the boys head swivels Lucy's way.

"Twenty three."

"Cool, you're about our cousins age! Sully's twenty five." Lucy stilled. There was more than one explanation to why they had a cousin named Sully, a million people had cousins named Sully but still—

"Sully? Like Sully Chandler?" Her luck had always been terrible, there were times of course where the metaphorical clouds that hovered over her broke for the sun— meeting Bill, the Weasley accepting her, Dora being a defiant little shit hellbent on getting to know her, meeting Remus —this not even she was this unlucky.

"Yeah! How'd you know!" Wendell bounced on his toes. Of course she was. "Hey Jess go get Sul!" The boy cheered only for Lucy who had reached tried to reach out to grasp the girls to miss.

The girls pigtails flapped behind her as she ran into the drug store she and her brother had just come out of.

"So how do you know my cousin Miss. Lucy?" Wendell wondered. Lucy felt her heart pound on her throat. She felt water press against her chest. Like she was in the lake again.

"School," Lucy choked, "You cousin and I went to school together."

"Awesome!" Standing there in muggle pants and a muggle rugby jersey with his little cousin tugging him by the hand stood Sully Chandler who with an unlit cigarette in his mouth gawked at Lucy.

"Black—I, wow, I so did not expect to see you here, and you're with the guy!" Chandler nodded at Remus who, Lucy saw from the corner of her eyes, glared back at him.

"Yeah well I'm here so if you don't mind—" Lucy went to turn back in the direction of the cinema only to stop when Sully Chandlers voice stopped her.

"I'm sorry. I read about what happened back in June, about your brother. I was an angry kid."

"You were an angry kid? You're chalking what you and your friends did up to being angry?" Lucy whispered.

"Well, yeah."

Lucy moved forward— just an inch —and Chandler pushed both his cousins behind him, Remus's hand fell so that it was only the pads of his fingers holding onto the pads of hers.

"I wasn't breathing when Bill pulled me out of the lake. You killed me—" Lucy's voice raised with each oncoming word, his cousin Jessica, with a broken look in her eyes looked up at her cousin, "Because you were angry at something I hadn't done!"

"I'm sorry but, hey it's not like I was wrong," Chandler told Lucy who cocked her head to the side.

"Excuse me?"

"Death Eater or not you still killed a man Black." His cousins both gasped behind him, they looked at Lucy the same way people had before Sirius had been exonerated. Like they were waiting for her to kill someone. To be just like her family.

Lucy hit him. Bill had done so after he and his friends had tried— and had accidentally ended up doing so —to drown her, but Lucy had never hit him or Quinn or Gills. The closest she had come to was drawing her wand on the back in February. She wasn't sure why she never had though, hitting Sully Chandler and seeing him hit the concrete pavement made something in Lucy swell. The same way a balloon swelled with air as it was inflated.

"Sully!" Remus, when Sully Chandler swayed to his feet and Lucy moved to hit him again, dragged Lucy to his chest by the back of pants. His arm had gone from the back of her pants to wrapped protectively around her middle while his other held his wand in his coat pocket.

"Feel better?" Chandler wondered as he worked his jaw.

Lucy bobbed her head from left to right for a minute. "Let me hit you again and then I'll answer."

"That's not happening, you hitting me was a one time thing Black." Not If Remus let her go. Chandler turned his back and ushered both young teens to the car parked across the road. When he and the car was gone Remus relaxed, though he didn't let Lucy go.

Lucy sagged against Remus body, with her eyes shut tightly she turned her head up at Remus. Guilt settled in her ribs. "I ruined date night didn't I?"

"What makes you think that?" Remus wanted to know.

Lucy turned in Remus' arms so their chests were pressed together. "Cause I hit him and I totally ruined whatever nice flirty mood we had going on before." Remus cupped Lucy's cheek.

"It's nothing we can't redo. The nights still young." Lucy melted. Someone else would have shrugged, would have told her no and watched the movie and their night would have ended in a stoic vibe but Remus smiled at her in a way where Lucy knew he wasn't just saying stuff to make her feel better.

"I love you," Lucy said, "I don't say it enough and I probably don't show it but I love you with all my heart and—" Remus kissed her, it was short and sweet but the love he had poured into the kiss made Lucy burn from the inside out.

"I love you too Lucy," he said softly. Lucy didn't get it— needing to remember just why she loved Remus —because she couldn't imagine ever forgetting.

* * *

**October 17, 1994**

Lucy, ever since her mother had passed and she had been granted full access to her family's bank vaults had become nothing short of a philanthropist. She donated money to causes that fought for centaurs and merpeople rights to keep their land and to fight illegal dragon poaching and other illegal types of creature hunting that Barnaby always went on and on about. She also donated money to causes that found cures, whether the cure was for Enyaliohaima, the magical blood disease her cousin Araminta had suffered and died from or for crucius curse or for lycanthropy, it didn't matter to Lucy. She had too much money and too much blood tied to her family's name.

Even before Remus had come into her life Lucy had been donating money to St. Mungos creature induced injury ward; and though Madam Longbottom would never take her money outright Lucy had been funding the Jane Thickey long term care ward since the moment here seventeenth birthday had happened.

It was why she, her brother, the kids if she and Sirius wanted to pull them out of school for the night, and a guest of their choosing had been invited to St. Mungos charity gala. Other rich pureblood would be there, some would donate enough for a new wing the hospital now had the money to build to be named after them, others would be there because their ancestors had created a life saving spell or potion that medwitches around the world used and they were there in their honor, others would be there because they were notable and the hospital needed the recognition.

Lucy, with Dora— whose hair was a short stationary but vibrant pink —and Penny, all of whom did not look like they belonged strolled through the isles of the expensive muggle Oscar de la Renta store in London looking for a dress for the gala. All the way in Diagon Alley Lucy knew Remus would be arguing with Sirius over getting him new dress robes.

While neither Penny nor Dora would be attending with Lucy or Sirius she greatly needed their advice on dress shopping.

"What about this one?" Penny held up a sleeveless dress that looked to be covered in scribbles. The top of the dresses bust was purposefully cut uneven, as if to look like the scribbles were jumping up from the dress itself. The rest of the dress itself faded from the solid black to white while only ever dotted the black through the scribbles spaces.

Lucy pulled a face. The dress was nice but purely from an aesthetic point of view. "No, it doesn't have sleeves."

"What about this yellow one?" Dora pushed a bright yellow, also strapless, dress in Lucy's face, the dresses train stretched across the floor. There was nothing special about the dress except for its eye catching color.

"Do you want me to look like a banana?" Dora, who had to of known that her choice of dress wouldn't of been picked stuck her tongue out in her cousins direction.

The three witches contained to stroll as Dora complained about an Auror on her team named Dwalish.

"—I'm just saying I don't get how Irene can stand having that prat as a partner, Merlin knows if I was paired up with him instead of Kingsley I'd hurt the man," Dora said theatrically, pressing her hands against her chest at the end, as if she'd been stabbed in the heart.

"That's only because he thinks your ability is weird," Lucy told her cousin as she flipped through the dresses on the rack. Every so often she would pull one out and hold it against herself.

"I mean that but also he's a know it all prat who when Sirius was on the run kept trying to bet with people that Lucy had helped him escape."

"What a fucking prat," Lucy replied dryly.

"I know!"

She had nixed the tulle gown that was covered in large orange flowers and the sleeveless green ball gown that looked to be made of a velvety bed comforter that Lucy could find in her childhood home not only because it looked like a blanket turned dress, not just because of its lack of sleeves but because of the low back of the dress. There were also gowns she nixed once she got into the fitting room, ones that had looked amazing on the hanger but just not right on her because of her muscles or height or because the colors didn't mix well with her skin tone.

"This is hopeless," Lucy groaned from behind a fitting room door, with her sweatpants and coat on the floor in the corner, in nothing more than her underwear and a bra the witch threw her head back in annoyance. Her muggle trainers her also off and it was only than against the cold fitting room flooring Lucy felt the bottom of her sock thinning.

"Come on, you'll find a dress," Penny encouraged, "Dora just went with the sales girl to find something for you."

"If you say so all knowing one," Lucy joked. "Hey Penny?"

"Yeah?"

"I—I had a dream a while back, after the kids went off to school, I just—I was a mum. The kids, Theo and Tahani and Harry, they were grown but I was a mother like honest to Ceirce, I pushed these little buggers out of me kind of mother."

"Yeah?" Thought she couldn't see Lucy, Lucy nodded, "I had a little girl and boy, Hope and Regulus."

"Remus was their dad?"

"Hope was his mother's name." Somehow that felt better than fully admitting that yes, in her dream Remus was the father to her children.

"You want a family with him?" Penny questioned.

"No, yes. I don't—I mean the thought of having a child of my own is terrifying but Theo called me mum and ever since then I've been having these dreams and what if it's something I want and something I have but than fuck up monumentally. What if I hurt my own kid? What if I hurt Theo and Tahani?"

"You won't," Penny said.

"But what if—"

"Lucy you won't. You're not your mother, you're not your father or your aunts or your uncles or even your brothers, you're you and the girl I grew up knowing would never hurt someone she cared about. The woman I know rather spend life in Azkaban than let the possibility of something that could hurt the people she loves couture to breath, okay? You're not your mother."

Lucy blinked.

"Right, I'm not my mother." Her voice wavered and Penny hummed from the other side of the door.

"If you did have kids, like gave birth to them—"

"That's not happening," Lucy told the blonde witch, but she thought of the little boy from her dreams and his messy hair and crooked nose and smiled bashful at the wood floor because even as she said that it would never happen part of her did want it to happen.

"Whatever, anyway if you did have kids, you would so name one after me right?" Lucy snorted loudly from the changing room she was in,

"Yeah okay, Penny Never Going To Happen Lupin." Neither she nor Penny commented how if she had a kid they would take Remus' name. Being a Black was more curse than a blessing, no matter what her cousin Cissy would say.

"Wonderful name, ten out of ten, though I would change the middle if I were you," Penny giggled.

"Back!" Dora cried from the other side of the door, "Try these on." The changing room door opened just enough for Dora to slide through a handful of expensive dresses ranging in colors from pink to red to black.

While some of the skirts were more a tulle fabric all of the dresses had opaque sleeves and backs.

"Thanks Dora," Lucy hooked the hangers of the dresses to the door before taking the glittery dark blue chiffon one from the door and slipping it on. The back hung open leaving the shape of the dress to be formless but even so Lucy grimaced at the sight of herself in the mirror.

The dress after that was a shimmering navy lamé mousseline, the floor-sweeping caftan dress was pretty and Lucy was sure she was going to buy it too, but it she wouldn't wear it to gala. The dress reminded Lucy too much of the women from sixteenth century portraits.

The shimmering gold dress after that Lucy couldn't get her hips though and her shoulders were too wide to fit though the cinched waist line. The pink one after that Lucy didn't bother to try on because she didn't like the abundance of flowers but the dress after that, the embroidered black, one Lucy had fallen in love with.

The dress's skirt ended at her calf and the sleeves at her wrists and though the neckline was a wide low square cut, something Lucy had never been crazy about in dresses she loved the neckline on this dress. She could see the scar under her collar bone but Lucy knew with some magic and make up that she cover it.

The embroidered shapes on the dress were outlined in white making them pop and Lucy, with her hair in her hand held her hand up against her skull and raised onto her tippy toes.

She could see herself wearing the dress to the gala.

"Found the dress!"

* * *

**October 21, 1994**

The day after the full moon had never been fun for Remus. Lucy had learned that more often than not the moon left Remus not only tired and sickly but also sometimes with either a broken bone or a new scar. When he had been at Hogwarts and taking wolfsbane all Remus had ever had to truly worry about was the lethargic feeling once the moon past and how to deal with it once his eight am class started

Even after, with Lucy and Sirius supply the wolfsbane potion Penny had spent the month making, and Sirius as Padfoot joining Remus on his monthly excursion life post-moon was better for Remus than it had been for the years he lived after the Potters death, but no matter what potion they gave him or who joined him there would always be some effects that Remus would have to deal with.

With Remus' head curled in her thigh as one hand massaged the top of his head and the other held the book she was reading aloud to him Lucy wished she could do something more for him.

She wanted to cure him, not because she hated him being a werewolf but because he hated it, because what he was hurt him every month and it killed her to see the man she loved tired and sad because of something that wasn't in his control.

"Why do you want me?" Remus wondered, Lucy mid sentence stopped what she was reading and looked at the man.

"What?"

"Why do you want me? You're beautiful and funny and talented and you have more money than the government itself I'm sure so why waste your time on me?" Lucy sainted at him for a moment.

"Because you're one of the best people I've ever met. How could I not love you?"

"I'm a werewolf." The sky was blue, water was wet and the grass was green.

"You're kind. I've met people, was raised by people, who were afforded every opportunity to be good and instead became complete monsters for cruelties sake, you aren't like that. Werewolf or not you're kind, you look at a part of yourself, one you don't like, and you reject it. You say you're going to be better than that part of you and you do so."

"I'm a werewolf."

"That's not something to be ashamed of Remus, no matter what my mother would say if she were alive."

"The way you make me sound, it's like I don't have faults. What if you're not seeing me and one day you do?" Lucy moved so that instead of Remus resting on her thigh she was flat on the bed next to him, their legs tangled together under the sheet.

"You have flaws, I see them. You're scared of commitment and you jump to conclusions, you hold a grudge and trust me when I say you can be passive aggressive and petty." Remus blinked at her, his lips parted, "But out of all of that, what you are, a werewolf, isn't one of those flaws."

"You said you didn't show your love me, or at least you didn't think so," Remus started, "But you do. Maybe you don't shower me in material objects like some people do to their Trophy girlfriends, but you do. In moments like these when all I needed to hear is shut up and get over yourself you go above and beyond to make me see myself through your eyes."

"I don't kiss you like you should be sometimes," Lucy said.

"No?" Remus kissed her, his hand slipped from Lucy's waist and grabbed at her behind as she slid an arm under her neck so she could pull herself up and over him. With both her legs on either side of him Lucy used her tongue to trace the outline of Remus' bottom lip, nipping at the skin every so often before sucking on the abused spot.

Opening his mouth Lucy didn't pound he her tongue in right away, pressing her chest against his and angling herself so that every time he took a breath their hips would meet Lucy focused more on tugging his hair just hard enough for him to enjoy.

When he pulled back, panting and slightly flushed, and with heavy eyelids he smirked at her, "I think you do just fine kissing me love."

"Yeah?" Lucy wanted to know, her nose bumping into his, with a smile he nodded.

"I'm sure though, if you want to make sure I'd be more than happy to help you see so."

* * *

**October 31, 1994**

The day had started off with Sirius already awake waiting for Lucy and Remus in the kitchen. Mixed with his cereal was whiskey not milk and what Remus had poured to mix with his morning coffee had not been creamer but the hard liquor Dora had left the last time she had come over.

It had been thirteen years since James and Lily had been murdered. Tomorrow would be thirteen years since Sirius was thrown into Azkaban.

Lucy knew that by the time the day had ended all she would want to do was go back in time and stop it from happening but she couldn't. Unspeakable were in charge of where Time Tuners were held and they were incorruptible so she and the Black family vault would have to continue on through the day.

Lucy found the paper mostly burnt in the sink and when she caught sight of the name Potter title she didn't bother to ask why Sirius had burnt it and instead moved the charred newspaper to the trash.

"I can stay," Lucy told Remus. The werewolf was in their room under the covers and Sirius, in his dog form, sat curled at the foot of the bed. Lucy ran her hands through Remus' hair. "If you want me to, that is."

"No," Remus shook his head, "You love practice."

"I love you more," Lucy said truthfully and Remus smiled faintly at that. It was weird to say, truthful or not, but Lucy did love Remus more than Quidditch. She loved the Weasleys and the kids more than the sport, Dora and Penny too, but she had never imagined ever loving someone else more than her broom and yet here she was, ready to forgo a day in the air if it meant he was okay.

"Go. Sirius and I are grown men we can take care of ourselves even on a day like today." Lucy nodded.

"Alright. I love you." Lucy could see the ghost of a smile playing on his lips.

"I love you too."

Practice had been good; Lucy had continuously caught the snitch when her coach released it and she had dodged bludger after bludger, not even allowing the magical ball to skim her once, but when she got home and found Sirius the content feeling that had made its home in her chest left and didn't look back.

Going to Sirius first if only because he was in the living room with two whiskey bottles at his feet and a third in his hands Lucy sat her brother down on the sofa. She took the bottle that was in his hands and and paced it next to the empty ones at his feet, take one of the empty ones and filling it with water she handed him that.

"Where's Remus?"

"Moony went to see Jamie. We had an—" Sirius hiccuped, "—We got into it," He slurred. Lucy knew that part of her couldn't be mad because whatever Sirius had said to Remus had only been said because of the alcohol and the grief but another part of her wanted to throttle the older pure blood in front of her.

"What the hell did you two fight about?"

"The fucking rat. I should've known it was bastard, all that sniveling and crying and—" Sirius threw the glass bottle over Lucy's head, smashing it against the wall, causing Lucy to flinch. Sirius got to his feet, his eyes blazing and Lucy threw herself back off the loveseat and scurried to the corner of the room as Sirius, pacing back and forth shouted that he should have had known the Pettigrew was the rat.

It had been obvious! Sirius threw another glass at the same spot he had thrown the first and Lucy, ducking down behind the arm of the couch felt nine again. She shut her eyes and tried to breath because she wasn't nine again. She was a fully grown woman and her mother was dead but when Sirius threw the third bottle at the wall and it shattered loudly all Lucy could see standing in her brothers place was her mother.

Deranged and broken, looking for a dead son and angry at the world with only Lucy to take it out on.

Perhaps the Gods were real, maybe fate was or Lady Luck because at that moment with Lucy's hands on her head, shaking as she screwed her eyes tight, hoping her brother would continued to rant and not catch sight of her— because what if he was more like their mother than anyone had realized —Remus walked in.

Sirius threw his hands in the air angrily as he paced the length of the living room once more but Remus' eyes stayed firmly stuck on Lucy who hadn't bothered to look up at him.

He moved, like a man possessed— like it wasn't him who was in control of his own body —to Lucy and kneeled in front of her. His own breath stunk of alcohol but his eyes were steadier than Sirius' had been. More sober. Lucy looked up over her knees at Remus and her bottom lip quivered, but she didn't cry.

Her chest hammered for air that she couldn't quite take in.

"What happened?" Remus asked gently.

"He threw the bottles," she sneaked. She wasn't nine anymore and Remus wasn't her brother and Sirius wasn't her mother but when Remus slowly and hesitantly reached out to tuck her hair behind her ears she felt it.

"At you?" Lucy shook her head, because even the first one he had thrown had gone past her. Just because it had been in direction hadn't meant he had thrown it at her and Lucy knew her brother well enough to know that intoxicated or not he would never do that to her.

He wasn't their mother.

"No." Remus nodded and turned his head to look over his shoulder sat Sirius,

"Sirius shut the fuck up and sit down." Looking like a lost child Sirius, who had stopped his ranting as soon as Remus had addressed him in a stern and heavy voice Lucy had never heard before, stared at Remus.

"But—"

"No. I'll deal with you in a second but for now sit down." Sirius did as he was told and Remus, with Lucy's hand in his, got the Seeker to her feet. Her knees trembled and though Lucy didn't say she couldn't walk Remus had swept her into his arms.

It was enough for Lucy to burst out crying. She wasn't sure why, no one had hit her nor hurt her in anyway shape or form, Sirius hadn't even raised his voice at her, but she still felt nine and vulnerable.

Lucy only stopped crying when Remus set her down on their bed, kneeling between her legs on the floor he looked up at her, using his thumb to wipe the hot tears falling down her face.

"He didn't do anything," Lucy blubbered.

"Yes he did," Remus told her, "Padfoot will realize what he did when he sobers up."

"He didn't hurt me," Lucy swore and Remus nodded,

"I'm sure he didn't lay a finger on you—But I'm also sure part of him knew what he was doing though, throwing those bottles with you in the room. Growing up once Sirius stopped being the fun drunk we all knew, James included, to clear out."

Remus went to get up only for Lucy to grab at his shoulders, her legs wound him and with wide, wet eyes she held him there.

"Please don't leave," she begged, "Just—" Lucy wasn't sure how long she wanted him there, "Not yet." With a nod Remus moved so that he and Lucy were on the bed facing one another. His fingers traced her cheek bones and the curve of her jaw and the shell of her ear until they were entangled with her black hair.

…

Lucy, no longer wearing her dirty practice uniform but rather a sweater she had stolen from Remus and a pair of sweatpants she constantly slept in, woke up to the tapping of an owl on her bedroom window, with Remus not next to her asleep, but probably— if the sound of laughter was a sign —downstairs with her brother. Sleepily she got to her feet and opened the window.

It wasn't a bird Lucy had ever seen before but nonetheless she pet the owls head, letting her finger run overs it beak.

"Hello there p," Lucy cooed at the bird, "What's your name?" The owl hooted back and stick out it's leg. Smiling Lucy took the note from around the nameless owls ankle and thanked the bird.

**_There's been an incident. _**

Lucy froze, her heart stopped beating because it didn't say what the incident had been, which what child the indecent had happened too or how bad the incident had been. Just that there had been an incident.

This had been what Mr. and Mrs. Weasley felt the night Ginny had been taken into the chamber, hadn't it? The chilling ice cold fingers of dread wrapping around their hearts because one of— all of —their kids were hurt and they had no idea what had happened. Who it had happened too, just something had in fact happened.

Not knowing drive people mad and in the few seconds Lucy stood after opening the letter she understood why.

Dropping the note and all but tearing the door off the hinges Lucy ran to wherever Sirius and Remus were. Bursting into the kitchen, startling both me Lucy looked at them, Sirius opened his mouth only for Lucy to hold both her hands up.

"The school wrote, there's been an incident." Blood drained from both Sirius and Remus' faces. It hadn't just been thirteen years since James and Lily had died, it had been thirteen years since Harry Potter had defeated Voldemort.

…

When Lucy, Remus and Sirius arrived, all in their pajamas, in Headmaster Dumbledores office it wasn't just he and Harry who were in the office, but Professor McGongall, Alastor Moody and both Bartimus Crouch and Ludo Bagman, along with two other people— a tall witch who wore a rouge lipstick and too much eyeshadow, and a smaller wizard who wore a fur hat on top his head —as well.

"What the hell happened?" Lucy demanded of Dumbledore as Sirius rushed to Harry. Alastor Moody gapped at Lucy from his corner of the room.

"You'll do well to remember respect Madam Black," Dumbeldore said.

"Lady Black," Lucy corrected, pajamas or not she didn't like Albus Dumbledore and just because the history books called him a modern Merlin didn't mean she was going to roll over and show the man her throat.

Lucy turned to Barty Crouch, "What the hell happened?" She looked at Mcgonagall, "Why were we written a There's been an incident note?"

"My names been put in the Goblet," Harry spoke before the adult could. "I didn't do it."

"We believe you," Sirius told his godson.

Remus looked at the room, "I don't understand why Harry's still here though, his name came out of the Goblet but—"

"He has to compete Remus," Dumbledore said. Both the man in the fur hat and the large woman scoffed.

"He's fourteen Headmaster, he can't compete!"

"His name was chosen from the goblet."

"The rules you sent home stated no one under seventeen could complete, it said we didn't have anything to worry about!" Sirius didn't yell at Albus Dumbledore as Lucy had when she had gone to him about Theo Notts father, but the indignation in his voice was clear. So was the fury in his eyes.

Harry held onto the cuff of his godfathers sleeve for support. He was pale.

"The rules—"

"Show me the rules," Lucy demanded, "I'll find a loophole."

"You won't," Crouch said, not high and mightily but steadily. "I drafted the rules myself, had a goblin help me as well, it's as magically binding as unbreakable vow." Lucy pressed her lips together firmly.

"He's—" Lucy sighed, "Remus maybe you should take Harry in the hall for a minute, just to talk." Remus looked like he wanted to oppose the suggestion but when Lucy shot him a well meaning gaze he nodded and lead Harry out of the room. When the door shut Lucy looked at Crouch.

"Show me the contract—"

"—Crouch already said—"

"—Did I ask you?" Lucy snapped at Moody. Bagman pulled out a roll of parchment from his robes. Lucy laid them out on Dumbledore desk, Sirius read them over her shoulders.

"He's underage," Sirius muttered, "That violates the first rule doesn't it. Doing so makes the contract null in void."

"It's the original cup," Crouch said, "The rules may be updated by the cup is the same one they used the last time the Tournament was played."

"Meaning because there's never been an age limit it wouldn't have mattered if Harry had been eleven as opposed to fourteen?" Crouch nodded.

"Harry didn't enter it himself," Lucy said, "The first rule states that every content that enters must be over the legal age."

"Headmasters can enter for students." Lucy turned to Dumbledore. He gave her a dry look. Handing over the parchment that had come from Goblet it wasn't Harry Potter, Hogwarts the payment had read but rather Harry Potter, Salem Academy for Boys.

"It's the Triwizard Tournament—"

"It's just a name," Bagman told Sirius, "It doesn't matter how many schools compete, as long as it's more than three."

"He's fourteen, end the Tournament and let Harry go from his obligation to fulfill it," Lucy tried to plead. McGongall was the only one in the room who looked fond of the idea.

"There's millions riding on this, trade deals and international business deals we can't talk about with people outside the Ministry," Bagman said, "If we end the Tournament now we have to wait for another year before it'll accept any new tributes."

"You'd risk my godsons life for a sack full of galleons and a trade deal?" Sirius stepped closer to Bagman and Crouch and Bagman stumbled back while Crouch began to eye the rug beneath their feet as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.

"I'm sure he'll win, he's Harry Potter after all," Bagman chuckled. Lucy wondered if the rest of the room hated Bagman enough to cover for her if she strangled the man to death in front of them or if she would have to wait until they were off school grounds?

With a look at Mcgonagall's face Lucy knew at least someone in the room would cover for her. That is, if she didn't have to cover for McGonagall on whether or not she clawed the ex-Beaters eyes out herself. At least Lucy one adult was on Harrys side when she and Sirius and Remus couldn't be.

* * *

**a/n: okay so I know I said I would update a few months ago but new year new me, right? Anyway in commemoration of the stories one year anniversary I'll update more this month. So anyway, see you next time!**

**Like, Kudos, Bookmark, Favourite and most certainly please comment bellow.**


	17. November 1994 - chapter seventeen

**November 1, 1994**

The day following Harry's name being pulled from the Goblet of Fire it had been closer to three in the afternoon when the three of them had arrived back at Constellation Commorancy; none of them spoke to one another as they congregated in the kitchen together. Silently Remus had made toast because none of them would've been able to handle much more than that, and wordlessly Lucy had made coffee because the past twenty-four hours had been nothing but a wind whirl of emotions, and almost catatonically Sirius had just sat at the table with his hands neatly folded in front of him and his spine straight; the way their edict teacher had taught them years before.

They— the three of them and Professor McGongagall —had, once the other Headmasters had gone back to their quarters and Harry had gone off to bed, stayed up four hours in the Deputy Headmistresses office, trying to figure out a way to weasel the Boy-Who-Lived out of tournament only to come up empty handed because no matter which way they tried to circumvent the rules they reached a legally binding wall.

It didn't matter that Harry was fourteen because they had used the original Goblet and the only thing that had stopped some dumb first year from entering had been an age line Dumbledore had drawn. It didn't matter that Harry was technically a Hogwarts student because he had been entered under a different, made up schools name and schools were invented all the time so the cup had accepted that Harry Potter was a student from Salem's Academy for Boys. It didn't even matter that he hadn't actually entered the tournament himself as the person who had entered him had done so had entered him posing as the fictional schools Headmaster.

He was trapped and there was nothing Lucy, Sirius or Remus could do to help him get out of the situation he'd been placed in and it was maddening.

Lucy felt as if she were swimming thought a thick sea of molasses and that there was a heavy fog in her brain stopping her from thinking of anything other than the fact one of her kids— because Harry was as much as hers as he was Sirius' and Remus'; as much as Theo and Tahani were her kids —was in danger.

"I bet it was Karkoff," Sirius said firmly, turning to them as Remus and Lucy— Lucy, who with a look of bewilderment —turned to the eldest Black son. Lucy, on top of the counter had been pressed against Remus' shoulder, his arm wrapped around her middle as he leaned onto her.

"Who?" Lucy wondered; the name didn't ring a single bell in her head and she was sure with a name like Karkoff if she had heard it before, she would've been able to remember it.

"The Durmstrang Headmaster," Remus told her,

"You know the Durmstrang Headmaster?" Lucy blinked.

"Know him?" Sirius said scoffing, "We fought him. The bastard's a marked Death Eater, which is why I think he was the one to do it. Think about it, first the Cup was attacked and then the Dark Mark appeared and now he's here's and Harry's been entered."

"Why would he do that Padfoot?" Remus asked. He shifted so that instead of his hip being against the marble counter it was the small of his back; his arm was still wrapped around Lucy, "What could he possibly have to gain—he sold out over a dozen Death Eaters when he was arrested to avoid Azkaban."

"So!" Srius got to his feet, the chair he'd been in clattered to the ground and his knuckles turned white with the force he used to grip the handle of his mug. For a moment Lucys thought he was going to throw it. "He was a Death Eater! A marked Death Eater Moony," there was a desperate nite in his voice, begging his friend to believe him, "Who cares if he sold out half the fucking ranks! He probably saw Harry the day he arrived and thought he'd do the dead prick a favor!"

"Why would he risk it though?" Lucy wondered. Snitch or not Karkoff was a marked Death Eater and just because he had been stupid enough to get caught didn't mean he was stupid enough to plan and carry out a murder plot under the noses of two powerful wizards; one of whom was paranoid and undoubtedly would already have his eye on him. Marked Death Eaters had to do something to prove themselves worthy before being let into the inner circle. "Moody— and Dumbledore —are in the castle with him, why would he run the risk of getting caught when there's no reward, it doesn't make sense."

Perhaps it was the Slytherin in her, or perhaps it was how she had been raised but doing something stupid, with no chance of actually being compensated in some sort of way, was outlandish. If Voldemort was around and could reward Karkoff for ultimately getting Harry killed in the tournament Lucy could understand why the Bulgarian Headmaster would have entered the boy, but he— Voldemort —wasn't around, he was dead and there was no reason for a Death Eater who escaped imprisonment to risk his freedom for a deadman's memory.

"Why am I not surprised you're defending a Death Eater?" Sirius sneered nastily, ice flooded Lucy's veins.

"Sirius!" Remus barked.

"What the bloody fuck dose that mean!" Lucy snapped, her voice raised. She jumped off the counter and Remus' arm was still wrapped around her middle; his fingernails dug past her sweater and into the flesh of her waist as he held her back from taking another step towards her brother.

"Between how you talk about Regulus and LeStrange—"

"—Reggie's our brother—"

"—Our Death Eater brother Lucretia! Death Eater! He was a bad person and you still talk about him like he was the best fucking person you ever knew!"

"He was the best fucking person I ever knew asshole!" Lucy snapped, "Reggie and Rabstan—" Because Lucy knew that Rab had been the Lestrange Sirius had alluded to, not Rodolphus, "—Took care of me when you decided you didn't want to, when you, like some pansy asshole, took off! They were there for me! They protected me! They were my family! Yes they were monsters! They they were Death Eaters but incase you forgot Sirius not everything in the world is black and white, sometimes— you fucking twit —people are gray, and just because you can convently forget the good times with certain people, that doesn't mean the rest of the bloodly fucking world can do the same!"

Her face was red, her cheeks were puffed out and her chest rose and fell in angry puffs. Sirius, paler than he had been, glared at her. He trembled like a volcano ready to explode. Like their mother, before Regulus had died, would do whenever she got angry enough to punish Lucy, but for the first time since the night in the Shack Lucy didn't care.

She didn't care how much Sirius reminded her of their mother or their father because in that moment she was eleven years old again and she hated him with every fiber of her being.

"I'm going home," she snapped unthinkingly, Remus' lips twitched as Lucy stared at her brother, "You—" she pointed at her brother, "—Can go fuck yourself," she spat before storming out of the kitchen and off to the fireplace where she grabbed a handful of sparkling ashy looking powder from what had originally been a flowerpot.

Lucy stepped into the large fireplace, "The Burrow!" She called, throwing the ash at her feet; harmless green flames erupted and encased her body in a blinding light before the airless feeling of being sucked through a small straw overtook her.

**…**

Molly Weasley hadn't been home when Lucy had stormed into the Burrow ranting about her asshole brother, but Arthur Weasley, on one of his rare days off, had been. The balding man, with his glasses halfway down his nose, had given Lucy a large, nearly arm sized mug of hot chocolate— "My Molly-Wobbles secrete recipe," he had said when he set it down —and a heavy blanket to wrap around her shoulders like a cape as she paced the length of the Burrows kitchen as she recounted what had happened to the older father of seven.

"—I mean," Lucy looked at Mr. Weasley who had taken a seat at the dining room table, "Am I wrong? Reggie and Rab, they were monsters, I know that— I know they did horrible, horrible things —but they were also all I had. Am I doing something wrong by remembering the good too?"

"Well, no, but I suppose also yes?" Mr. Weasley told Lucy, the older man beckoned the ravenett witch to sit in the seat next to him and Lucy, gripping the edges of the blanket did so, "It's harder for Sirius, I suppose, to remember the good, he was on the front lines fighting— he probably fought your brother and Ophelia's father more than once, saw the things they'd done —but you're right, they where all you had, them and your cousin so it's natural you remember more good than bad from them."

"So I'm not a terrible person." Lucy asked and Arthur Weasley chuckled, he reached for Lucy's hand and smiled,

"Of course not—" both Mr. Weasley and Lucy turned to the sound of the front door opening and the pair of them beamed at the sight of Mrs. Weasley.

"Lucy!" Mrs. Weasley smiled, sounding pleasantly surprised, "What are you doing here?"

"I had a bit of a row with Sirius," Lucy told her, "I ended up coming here because it was the first place I thought to go." She had called it home hadn't she? When she had told Sirius he could stuff it she had said she was going home—warmth flooded through her because it was true, no matter how old she was the Burrow was home.

Hogwarts had always been there and growing up it had always meant getting away from her mother but the Burrow had always been the place she was safest; at Hogwarts she had been almost drowned and tormented because of who her family was and at Grimmauld she had been abused because of what her brothers had done but at the Burrow she had been welcomed and loved and shown what kind of love she was deserving of.

Molly Weasley frowned, "That man," she grumbled, it wasn't a secret that after Meiri's birthday, where's Mr. Wesley and Sirius could talk about sports or muggle life Mrs. Weasley was always a hair's breadth away from cursing the recently freed man, "I ought to teach him a lesson, I mean really, chasing you out of your own home!" Lucy couldn't help but giggle.

"I think it was less he chased me out and more I left before I strangled him to death." Mrs. Weasley, pecking her husband on lips, let out a huffed chuckle. She pecked the crown of Lucy's head, the former Slytherin hugged the woman tightly; Mrs. Weasley took the seat on the other side of Lucy when they parted.

"Still, what happened now?"

**…**

Once Molly Weasley had stopped ranting about Harry once more—_ "He's a child, a child! How can they possibly let him compete!"_ — and after she had angrily raved about what Sirius had said— because where Mr. Weasley could easily see both sides Mrs. Weasley was the humanized version of a mother bear —the older witch kindly invited Lucy to stay for dinner.

"Are you sure?" Lucy wondered, "I mean, I know I sort of just showed up but I don't really want to get in the way of any plans you two had," she knew that Mr. Weasley rarely got days off.

"Phsss," Mrs. Weasley laughed, "The only plans Arthur and I had for tonight was turning on the old muggle radio he has out back and listening to the old Just a Minute reruns," Mrs. Weasley said.

"Well if you're sure," Lucy said, "Is there anything you need help with?" Molly Weasley took in a deep breath,

"Help?" She narrowed her eyes the same way she usually did when cooking up the twins punishments, "Well I was planning on cooking up a stout pie; you wouldn't mind pulling the carrots and potatoes from the garden out back while I cut up the meat and such?"

"Of course," Lucy said, moving to get up; Molly followed her up and handed the Korean-English witch a baby blue wicker basket with white and pink daisies painted on the sides; it was obviously Meiri's— or had, at least, once belonged to the Prewett girl —that's handle squeaked as it was lifted. It was cute.

"How much should I get?" Lucy wondered,

"Just enough to fill the basket as is, no need to go putting an extension charm on if it's just the three of us."

"Alright then," Lucy said heading out thru the backdoor and to the garden. There were plenty of weeds— though not from iscare or neglect but because it was just how magical weeds were —and each of the trees were gnarled and a big green pond full of frogs; and practically spilling out of the flowerbeds, between the magical plants like the Alihotsy shrubs and moly flowers were the large heads of lettuce and other vegetables that Molly Weasley grew in her spare time.

And under the dropped leaves of the lettuce and between the roots of the trees were the gnomes that no matter how much she and the others threw them, always came back; not that she felt bad for the potatoe-like monsters. The first time she had ever picked up one of the rotten little suckers she had been bitten.

_It was early in the morning and Lucy, eleven and in her first ever Weasley sweater stood next Bill and a nine year old Charlie Weasley as Bill, grinning plucked a gnome off the ground._

_Where Bill had compared the gnome to a fat little Santa Clause-like creature with fishing rod-like arms Lucy was inclined to disagree with her friend because the creature in his hand was certainly nothing like Santa Claus. It was small and leathery looking, with a large, knobby, bald head exactly like a potato. Bill held it at arm's length as it kicked out at him with its horny little feet; he grasped it around the ankles and turned it upside down._

_"This is what you have to do," he said. He raised the gnome above his head— the gnome yelled at Bill to let go of it —and started to swing it in great circles like a lasso._

_"Doesn't that hurt them though?" Lucy asked the two brothers._

_"Nah," Charlie shook his head, his voice muffled from the scarf Mrs. Weasley had wrapped around him nearly a dozen times. "You've just gotta make them really dizzy so they can't find their way back to the gnome holes."_

_"Oh, okay." Lucy trusted Bill, and she trusted Charlie and the other Weasleys but still the thought of throwing the smaller creatures over the hedge that bordered the garden, and risking the possibility of hurting it made her uncomfortable so she had decided just to drop the first one she caught over the hedge, but the gnome, sensing weakness, sank its razor-sharp teeth into her finger._

_Lucy, swearing loudly and unladylike threw the gnome off her finger._

_"Merlin Luce that's gotta be fifty feet!" Bill said in awe with his gloved hand over his brows. He grinned and Lucy, cradling her finger to her chest grinned back._

_The air was soon thick with flying gnomes._

Lucy nudging the gnomes out of her way with her foot— ignoring the rude gestures and the rude utterances they muttered as she kneeled in front of where the carrots were planted —began to pull the carrots. The first time she had gone to help Mrs. Weasley in the garden she had thought picking the carrots had meant pulling them straight out of the ground. She had been wrong.

_The air was hot and Bill was inside with the twins and Charlie was with Percy and summer vacation was halfway over. Mra. Weasley had asked Lucy for help in the garden only to chuckle as the young witch fell back on butt._

_"Lucy, deary, look," Mrs. Weasley smiled; she inserted the garden fork into the soil a few inches away from the base of the carrot plant; she pushed the fork in so the inward curve of the fork was facing the row of carrots. Mrs. Weasley pulled the handle of the fork towards her body and away from the carrot foliage; the garden forks tinges lifted the soil and roots from the ground without damaging the carrot roots; unlike Lucy who had pulled the foliage from the carrots she had been trying to harvest._

_Grasping the carrots by the base of the foliage Mrs. Weasley lifted them from the loosened soil._

_"Oh," Lucy observed, she looked down at the green on her hands and her cheeks tinged pink; "I'm sorry." Mrs. Weasley's hand rested on Lucy's shoulder and the young girl— still not used to people touching her just to touch her —jumped._

_"Don't worry about those, try again with these," Mrs. Weasley told her easily pointing to the green carrot tops next to the ones she had pulled out herself._

A throat cleared behind her. Lucy, with a dirt covered carrot in her hand turned to see Sirius standing behind her; his hands were stuffed deep in his leather pockets and a guilty look shadowed his face.

Behind him, in the kitchen window overlooking the garden was both Mrs. Weasley and Remus; both of whom scuttled away when they had caught sight of Lucy looking at them. Turning her attention back to Sirius Lucy set the carrot on the ground.

"What do you want, Sirius?"

"To apologize," he said, "I was wrong before— what I said to you; how I said it —was out of line. You didn't do anything to deserve that, I just—" Sirius cut himself off, "—Between yesterday and Harry and what today actually is—" Sirius shook his head, "—I never should have done what I did, last night or before."

_He's apologizing?_ Lucy's head spun. _Blacks_, her mother had once told her when she— scared to be hurt —had cried for forgiveness right before a punishment,_ Don't apologize. They don't cry and sniffle and beg for forgiveness, Blacks are perfect._

"No," she choked, "You shouldn't have, I care for Harry as much as you and Remus do but thank you," she breathed, "You apologizing means a lot." She wasn't just saying that either; Sirius, a Black— the man who was meant to be the Black heir —apologizing to her, it meant the world.

He offered Lucy his hand, "I still have carrots to pick," she told him. Sirius keeled down next to her with an easy half grin on his face;

"Do you want any help?" Lucy felt herself grinning.

"Yeah, that's—that'd be nice."

* * *

**November 3, 1994**

Sirius Blacks thirty-fourth birthday was held at Andromeda Tonks house; old rock music slipped in between the newer songs Dora had told Sirius he just had to listen too, and Ted Tonks' laugh could be heard between every line of the base as Sturgis Podmore, and old friend of Remus and Sirius' told another joke.

Andromeda and Emmeline Vance, another old friend of Remus and Sirius' sat on the couch chatting; the women both apparently liked the muggle movie The Shawshank Redemption while Remus introduced Lucy to Dedalus Diggle a squat but very excitable man who wore a large purple top hat atop his head, despite being indoors.

Remus' hand was splayed out on the small of her back as Dedalus Diggle recounted story after story about Srius, Remus and James; the first one had been about how Dedalus hadn't thought much about them— _"I mean can you blame me Remus?"_ The older man questioned. Lucy, for a second thought he was going to blame Remus' lycanthrope for his mistrust and hooped the party mood wouldn't be too damped if she hit him; she also hoped neither Remus or Sirius would be too upset with her hitting an old friend of theirs, _"I mean that hair you used to have? That hair of hooligans!"_ —and after that it had been a story about how Longbottom—_ "Frank, not Alice—poor folks"_ —swore he once found Sirius and Remus bombed from whatever they had done the night before and passed out with a stag next to them.

The story the old hyperactive man was recounting then was about the time Remus, Sirius and James had all rushed into the organizations meeting room— even he said organization; like he had taken a vow to never say the actual name —panting because the three of them had outrun the muggle police on the back of Sirius' flying motorbike.

"—And so Benjy, Fenwick that is— he was a good lad, Merlin rest his soul, a bit prickly when he didn't eat though, not that you'd ever know he did with how skinny he was —anyway, so Benjy Fenwick is telling us all about how You-Know-Who and his men are starting to reach out to the continent or something like that— honestly it could have been that he had found more Marked names but still, anyway —Fenwick is talking when your brother and fellow over here and of course James Potter— you never saw James with Sirius did you? We used to joke he was more married to him than he was Lilly whenever we'd find those two scheming up something in a corner —but that's besides the point, the point is those three burst into the room, startle us all to high heavens because we think we're being attacked, and Dearborn, the good man, hits Mundungus Fletcher right in the ass with a stinging hex! He sent the little bastard sky high!" Lucy had laughed into her hand and Remus had chuckled at the memory into the crown of Lucy's head, muffling himself with her hair, but Dedalus Diggle bent over laughing at the memory.

Lucy turned to Remus; "Why were the three of you running from muggle officers?" Remus' ears burned pink.

"Well I was in the sidecar and Prongs was behind Padfoot, who was speeding by the way, and when we see the lights of the police officers car turn on Pad decides it's best to run because the last time he had pulled over he'd been arrested for not having any muggle identification on him—"

"—I'm sorry," Lucy cut in, "Just how many times has Sirius actually been arrested?" Impishly Remus smiled.

"—Like I was saying," Remus carried on as if nothing had interrupted him, "The last time he'd pulled over he'd been arrested so he decided that instead of all three of us getting arrested for not having identification he'd take off and out run the officers."

"Merlin."

"It's better than the time Peter fell off the back; I was in the sidecar, Prongs was behind Sirius and Peter behind him only at some point between his flat and where James and Lily had been staying Peter had fallen off."

"Ceirce!" Lucy gasped; a knock came from the door. Lucy pulled away from Remus,

"I got it Dromeda!" Lucy said to her cousin who had only just barely risen off the couch, she turned to Dedaluas Diggle and held out her hand with a soft smile, "It was a pleasure meeting you."

Diggle's large purple top hat tilted forward as he grasped Lucy's left hand with both of his and shook it enthusiastically; "And you dear." Lucy pecked the corner of Remus' lips and moved to the door which, with a large grin, she threw open the door and was greeted with the sight of not only a large but well groomed Rubus Hagrid, but Professor McGonagall and Alastor Moody.

Moody, who wore the ugliest bowler hat Lucy had ever laid eyes on, straightened from his slouch— his cane scraped against the cobblestone beneath him —at the sight of her. She beamed at both Hagrid and McGonagall.

"Professor McGonagall! Hagrid! Moody," she said with much less enthusiasm than she had used to greet either Hagrid or McGonagall, Lucy moved to the side, "Come in, come in." She shut the door behind Moody who had been the last to enter, she could feel his magical eye glued to her as she moved past him.

"Sirius look who showed up!" She called out; Sirius' head whipped up from the conversation he had been having with Dora and Kingsley Shacklebolt— who had apparently gone to school with both Sirius and Remus —and swiveled to her and the three Hogwarts Professors by the door.

"Minnie—Mad-Eye!" Dora, Kingsley, Remus and the organization members' heads all snapped to the door to gape at Alastor Moody who shifted from foot to peg-leg. Remus left the conversation he had carried on with Dedalus Diggle and approached the group as Sirius hugged the Hogwarts Deputy Headmistress.

"Mad-Eye it's great to see you again," Sirius said, holding his hand out for his old Auror training officer. The man didn't shake and instead took to bowing the tip of his puke green bowler hat.

"You too Black, Happy birthday," Moody said with a growl to his voice. Remus wrapped an arm around Lucy's waist as he settled next to her, grinning as Sirius thanked Moody. The eldest Black took the medium sized present Hagrid passed to him.

Moody's eyes stayed planted on Remus' hand, his eye— the good one, the magical eye stayed planted on Remus' hand —moved up to Remus' face.

"Alastor, it's nice to see you again, how've you been?" The werewolf wondered; Sirius shook the box next to his ear like an excited child.

"Fine," he said shortly, "And you?" Remus opened his mouth and looked at Lucy and then turned his head and looked at Sirius who had been in the middle of telling Hagrid a muggle joke Arthur Weasley had told him and then he looked at Lucy once more, with a soft look on his face and then to Moody, beaming.

"Amazing, better than I've been in a long time." Moody's magical eye moved from Lucy's waist to her face; "But uh," Remus looked between Lucy and Moody, "Has anyone ever introduced you two? Alastor this is Lucy, love this is—"

"We've already met Remus," Lucy said before Moody could say something.

"You have?" He blinked.

"Who do you think interrogated me the day Pettigrew blew up the street?" Remus' eyes widened embarrassingly. Moody stiffened.

"Oh—"

"How have you been Black?" Moody questioned, "Keeping your nose clean?" He asked almost snidely. _Prick_, Lucy thought. Hadn't making her cry at eleven been enough? Lucy glared at the man; his eyes were brighter than they had been moments before.

"Of course, I'd ask if you were doing the same Moody but I doubt that's possible."

"Lucy!" Remus hissed, his hand squeezed her side but Moody's chest rumbled with the chuckle.

"You're just like your brother aren't you?" He wondered with a shark like grin. It was familiar in all the wrong ways; it made Lucy's stomach churn. Before she could shoot back something wittily Dora's voice cut in.

"Alastor Unicorn Moody, sir Merlin, sir!" Dora flounced over, the metamorphmagus tripped when she got close to the three of them and with her arms out in front of her as she fell Lucy was brought crashing down with her cousin.

"Dora," Lucy moaned on the floor, Remus and Moody both bent down and helped the young women up— Remus helped Dora up by her elbow and Moody had pulled Lucy up by her forearm —"I swear to Merlin one day I'm going to lose it and murder you."

"Do it," the pink haired witch dared as Remus breathed something about Lucy needing to stop saying she was going to murder people.

* * *

**November 10, 1994**

Lucy, in the emerald green Weasley sweater Mrs. Weasley had given her that past Christmas laid stretched out on the grass in front of her house looking up at the clear blue sky above her. Remus, having given up looking for a job in the magical world was spending the day job hunting in the muggle one, and Sirius was playing Led Zeppelin's nineteen-sixty nine song All My Love loud enough that despite the front door and his bedroom window being closed Lucy could still clearly hear songs lyrics from where she laid.

Lucy thought of two things, the first was that she was glad she lived several miles outside of town, and the second being that if their mother used to hate his music then their father had lothed it.

_With their parents at St. Mungos for their fathers worsening cough and Regulus out in the world with Claudia Burke and Barty Crouch Jr, Elton John's This Bitch is Back boomed through the halls number twelve grimmauld place. Paintings grumbled as their frames thumped against the wall and vases tattered dangerously close to the edges they were seated on. Lucy, four years old happily jumped around Sirius' room and called it dancing as fourteen year old Sirius, with his summer homework in his hands, laughed at Lucy's silly butt wiggle from his seat on the bed._

_If the instructor their parents paid to teach them proper pureblood dancing could see them she would have a heart attack; "That," the old crone would cry with a wrinkled and shaky hand, "Is not dancing!" And perhaps it wasn't but Lucy was four and having fun and it was all that mattered to Sirius. That and finishing his Arthmacy homework._

_"Sirius!" The little girl shouted at the top of her lungs, still not loud enough to be clearly heard over the music, she lunged at her older brother, flopping next to him on his bed and grabbing his hand, "Dance with me!"_

_"I have to finish my homework Goose!" Sirius told her louder, he took his hand from her and mused up her free flowing hair._

_"Please!" She pouted her lip, she took his hand from the top of her head and curled it so that she could rest her chin on it. "Please!"_

_"You really have to stop it with that face Goose," Sirius told her as he, with his free hand, ear marked the page he was on before setting the textbook to the side._

_"Why?" Lucy blinked,_

_"Because I can't ever seem to say no to you when you make it."_

_"That's why I make it though," Lucy said, she didn't understand what she said that was funny enough for Sirius to start laughing at her but the older boy had, titling his head back and letting the music drown out his corse bark like laugh, Sirius chuckled._

_He then, unexpectedly, picked her up, Lucy shrieked jovial as she balanced on her brother's hip. The other boy bounced them around their room, jumping to the beat of the song; they'd only jumped around for a verse before Sirius's bedroom door flew open causing both Black heirs to turn around in surprise._

_Their father Orion, balding and hunched back with his wand already out said nothing as he exploded the boombox that sat on Sirius' dresser. Several emotions crossed Sirius' face in the span of a second— shock, fear, sadness —the last one being anger._

_"What the bloody—"_

_"Don't finish that sentence boy!" Their father boomed, only to start coughing immediately afterwards. The wizard wheezes before straightening up, "I thought your mother and I said to watch your sister not expose her to this degenerate garbage!"_

_"It's not garbage!" Sirius protested, still holding Lucy who stared at the pieces of a smoking boombox. Her tiny lips were parted as she stared transfixed on the broken machinery. Their mother often broke things in her fits of rage— plates, glassware, statues —but it was the first time Lucy had ever seen their father do so._

_"Hell it isn't!" Once more their father coughed into his fist. The older wizard straightened out his back and looked almost disgustedly at his son._

_"I listen to it!" Sirius protested! Orion Black glared at his son, as if to rest his case._

_"I forbid you from listening to them," Orion huffed, "—Who were they? Those Tornado Sisters—"_

_"—Twisted Sisters? No," Sirius hiked Lucy higher up on his hip, "Elton John actually."_

_"Who?" Orion Black scoffed. Sirius, with a dangerous glint in his eyes, smirked. It was the same look he got whenever he was about to say something he knew would make their mother lose it._

_"Elton John, a muggle." Lucy had never seen her father turn red before; she had seen her mother's cheeks puff up pink whenever she was thrown into one of her fits of anger and Lucy had seen Regulus's ears darken whenever he argued with Sirius but she had never seen her father's face turn as red as the Gryffindor banners in Sirius' room before._

_She had never truly seen her father angry. There were times— had been times —where Orion Black had raised his voice and times where he had slammed an occasional door but Lucy couldn't remember a single time in her short life she had ever seen her father enragraded, at least, not before then._

_"Lucretia!" Her father snapped in a commanding tone that left no room for arguing, "Come here!" Sirius with a glare of his own set her down and Lucy shuffled over to her father who not so gently pushed her out of the room and into the hall. He didn't shove her but he certainly didn't handle her with care._

_"Watch how you handle her!" Sirius snapped, "She's a kid!"_

_"And you better watch how you talk to me boy!" Orion fired back, "I don't want to hear another peep from you until you go back to school. No more muggle music, no more arguing with your mother or brother or so help me you'll be on the street so fast you'll head will spin!" With that, as he coughed harder than he had while yelling at Sirius, their father slammed Sirius' door behind him._

Lucy turned her head to see the shaggy black dog sitting next to her. No longer was it skin and bones under layers of matted hair but lean muscle and beautifully washed out fur.

"Hey Sirius," she muttered turning back to watching the sky. The dog shifted and sitting with his legs folded on the grass next to her, was her brother.

"Witcher Goose, what're you doing?" Lucy shrugged, the dead grass wrinkling under her shoulders.

"Thinking about when we were kids—when father blew up your boom box," she told him. She didn't have many memories of her father, some of him sitting at the head of the dining room table silently cutting his meat, and the one of him yelling at Sirius as the eldest Black boy left, and that one. There was one more from an old Christmas morning but besides those handful of memories Lucy couldn't remember her father.

"He was such an asshole—" Sirius cleared his throat and lowered his voice to sound like Orion Black once had, "You're a stain on this house Sirius, one step away from blood traitor garbage!" Lucy, propping herself up on her elbow, looked at her brother.

"He said that?" Sirius nodded.

"The summer before I ran away, right before I left for school. I think he thought he could use the fact his health was declining to shame me into being the proper kind of son."

"What an ass," Lucy agreed. Their mother had been a monster; their father though, had been an ass.

"Do you remember the time when Alphard got so loaded at the annual Christmas gala he kissed the Minister's aid right in front of everyone?" Lucy's jaw dropped because no, she did not.

"You're kidding me! That happened?"

"Yeah! You were probably like five? Maybe you were four, anyway you were young, and oe sam chon Cygnus and Druella were throwing it that year at the manor so everyone is in the ballroom and I just remember looking for you cause it was my responsibility to wrangle you that night as Reggie as slouched off to chase after Claudia—"

"—From everything I remember, when wasn't he always doing that?" Lucy interrupted, a teasing smile on her lips.

"Fair," Sirius laughed with a wagged finger, "Anyway I remember seeing you over by Ara and Rabastan and than looking over to see why someone had dropped a glass, because everyone sort of gasped and seeing oe sam chon Alaphard tipping back Minister Leach's aid so he could snog him properly."

"Holy fuck, I'm sure mother and Cygnus loved that."

"She hexed him, Alphard dropped the aid who was, let me just say, uncomfortably into it, and than as Rodolphus, the git, may he rot in Azkaban, carted Alphard off to sober up or go home or something, as Cygnus and Durella did damage control."

"How's that work out?"

Sirius shrugged, "Alright I guess, by the end of the night everyone thought Alphard had drunk enough to confuse the aid with a woman he was seeing and that the aid should cut his hair more."

"Merlin!"

"Tell me about it."

* * *

**November 14, 1994**

Lucy Black loved Remus Lupin, the pair of them with old records playing in the background, were curled up on the couch together as the fire across the room crackled hungerly. Her head rested on his shoulder and her shoulders ached from that day's practice while the rest of her ached due to cramps. His bare feet were cold against hers but she couldn't find it in herself to move away from him; his fingers threaded through her hair every so often.

"Remus?" She asked.

"Yes love?"

"If—" she started, "—If you weren't a werewolf what do you think you'd be doing right now?"

"Why?" Lucy shrugged, the question had been on her mind for a while; if he weren't a werewolf would he still have taught at Hogwarts? Would he still have fought against being with her as much as he had because she was Sirius' Blacks sister at the time? Would he have still ran away after the first time she told him she loved him?

"If you weren't a werewolf would you still be with me?" Remus grinned,

"Lucy if I weren't a werewolf I would still be irrevocably in love with you because you're amazing." Lucy grinned,

"Yeah?"

"Ego," Remus teased.

"You like my ego."

"I like everything about you," Remus rebutted and Lucy warmed from the inside out, she smiled at him because just the sight of him made her smile.

"I love you," she told him, he pressed his lips against her sweetly. It was a tender kiss. She loved him, she loved him with every fiber of her being, every cell of her body and every ounce of her soul. She loved him and he loved her. He loved her despite her faults and shortcomings and where she came from.

"I love you too."

* * *

**November 15, 1994**

Lucy woke up to Sirius having set the paper on fire, the smouldering ashes of what was left burnt in the sink.

"What the hell did the paper do to you?" She wondered, Sirius who with his wand out, had been glaring at the sink and the newspaper remnants turned to her.

"That— that woman —Rita Skeeter!" Sirius cried.

"That bitch?" Lucy blinked. "What's she written now?" She truly was the worst, since starting her career as a professional Quidditch player Lucy had quickly learned not to talk to the Skeeker woman unless it was set up by her coach.

"Lies!" Sirius shouted, "About Harry!" Lucy's brows knitted together,

"But he's a kid." There were laws in place to stop the paper from releasing a minor's name without the consent of their parent or guardian.

"Exactly—" Sirius waved his wand and part of the unburnt section of paper levitated above the sink. "Listen to this! _I suppose I get my strength from my parents. I know they'd be very proud of me if they could see me now. . . . Yes, sometimes at night I still cry about them, I'm not ashamed to admit it. . . . I know nothing will hurt me during the tournament, because they're watching over me. . . ._"

"I mean," Lucy grimaced, she didn't like that the Rita woman had freely spoken to her brother's godson without their consent. "I know Harry doesn't cry at night but that doesn't sound too bad as opposed to what she has actually written."

"That's not the point, the point is she wrote lies about Harry!" Lucy held her hands up in defeat.

"You're right, you're right, so what do you want to do about it?" She wondered, "We can get it pulled, I can call in favors, ask for some if need be whatever you think is in Harry's best interest."

"I—I don't know. If we have the article pulled, what's to stop her from writing something worse about Harry, sure she'll get in trouble than too but it'll already be out there and you know how the public is."

"In my opinion?" She offered, Sirius nodded for her to keep going. "There's going to be more articles, the first task hasn't even started so we wait, if they even look like they're turning against Harry we shut her down so badly Grandfather Pollux would be proud." Sirius, with a dog like smirk, grinned.

* * *

**November 17,1994**

Lucy, Sirius and Remus waited for Harry in the Shrieking Shack. Earlier that night the boy had sent a frantic owl that the first task would be dragons only for Sirius to send an equally frantic owl back to him instructing him to meet the three of them in the shack later that night.

It wasn't that Lucy felt guilty over having killed Peter Pettigrew— and it wasn't as if, even for a second, she ever had felt guilty over it —but there was something daunting about standing in the same room she had killed a man; about standing in the same spot unable to look away from where the man's corpse had hit the floor.

Lucy's foot tapped fast against the old scratched up flooring as her eyes stayed glued to a specific spot on the floor and Sirius walked back and forth the length of the room while Remus continuously crossed and uncrossed his hands.

Harry, with the invisibility cloak sticking out of his pocket— and Theo who had the Marauders map hanging out of his back pocket, and Tahani —all walked through the door to the room; Tahani bounced over to Lucy who she hugged tightly and Theo, with a split lip smiled shyly near the mouth of the room as Harry bounded over to the left of her to his godfather whom he hugged tightly.

"What the fuck happened to your face!" Lucy panicked, she moved from Tahani— who moved to greet Remus —to Theo who grinned roguishly. Lucy grab Theos chin between her forefinger and thumb and tilted his head up more into the light of the moon.

"I got into a fight," Theo said, "Really it's nothing."

"What did you get into a fight over?"

"Well Higgs was in the common room last night and he was saying all this stuff about Harry and you and Remus and, I don't know, I couldn't let him." Lucy got that; she couldn't remember how many times she fought someone from her own house for speaking ill about the Weasleys or about Dora.

"Well you won, right?"

"Won?" Tahani laughed from next to Remus, "Higgs came into the Great Hall this morning missing a tooth, we all thought he wandered into the forest last night before we saw Theo!" Lucy clapped Theo on the shoulder proudly.

"Seriously?" Remus cleared his throat behind her, his own badly concealed grin fought to stretch out from behind the fist he had coughed into. "Right, er, seriously?" Lucy repeated in a deeper, more disappointed voice. She winked at Theo who grinned. She turned her body to Harry,

"And how are you?" She wondered seriously.

"I'm —" For a second it seemed as if Harry had tried to tell them all he was '_fine_', but he couldn't do it and he could stop himself, he was talking about how no one believed he hadn't entered the tournament of his own free will, how Rita Skeeter had lied about him in the Daily Prophet, how he couldn't walk down a corridor without being sneered at— Lucy and Sirius had shared a look at that and with a sublet head nod they both agreed that something would have to be done about the article if Harry was being tormented on just what had been published already —and about Ron, Ron not believing him, Ron's jealousy.

". . . and now Hagrid's just shown me what's coming in the first task, and it's dragons, I'm a goner," he finished desperately. Sirius looked at him, eyes full of concern, eyes that had still not yet lost the look that Azkaban had given them — that deadened, haunted look.

"Dragons we can deal with, Harry, but we'll get to that in a minute. There are things I need to warn you about." Both Remus and Lucy shot Sirius a suspicious look.

"What?"

"Karkaroff," said Sirius. "Harry, he was a Death Eater. You know what Death Eaters are, don't you?"

"Sirius!" Remus hissed,

"What, Harry and the others have a right to know Moony—they should know!" Sirius snapped almost furiously before turning back to Harry who looked at his godfather with wide unblinking eyes. Tahani and Theo both sandwiched Lucy between them; Lucy could feel Tahani gripping the back of her robes in her fist.

"Yes — he — what?"

"He was caught, he was in Azkaban with me, but he got released. I'd bet everything that's why Dumbledore wanted an Auror at Hogwarts this year — to keep an eye on him. Moody caught Karkaroff. Put him into Azkaban in the first place."

"Karkaroff got released?" Harry said slowly, his brain seemed to be struggling to absorb such a piece of shocking information. "Why did they release him?"

"He made a deal with the Ministry of Magic," said Sirius bitterly.

"He said he'd seen the error of his ways, and then he named names, he put a load of other people into Azkaban in his place. He's not very popular there, I can tell you. And since he got out, from what I can tell, he's been teaching the Dark Arts to every student who passes through that school of his. So watch out for the Durmstrang champion as well."

"Okay," said Harry slowly. "But are you saying Karkaroff put my name in the goblet? Because if he did, he's a really good actor. He seemed furious about it. He wanted to stop me from competing, you saw that."

"We know he's a good actor," said Sirius, "because he convinced the Ministry of Magic to set him free, didn't he? Now, I've been keeping an eye on the Daily Prophet, Harry—"

"—You and the rest of the world," said Harry bitterly.

"—And reading between the lines of that Skeeter woman's article last month, Moody was attacked the night before he started at Hogwarts. Yes, I know she says it was another false alarm," Sirius said hastily, seeing Harry about to speak, "But I don't think so, somehow. I think someone tried to stop him from getting to Hogwarts. I think someone knew their job would be a lot more difficult with him around. And no one's going to look into it too closely; Mad-Eye's heard intruders a bit too often. But that doesn't mean he can't still spot the real thing. Moody was the best Auror the Ministry ever had."

"So . . . what are you saying?" Theo voiced from his spot next to Lucy slowly. "Karkaroff's trying to kill Harry? But, why? If he got out of a life sentence why risk killing Harry under Dumbledore's nose?" So it wasn't just her who was thrown by the idea. Sirius hesitated, his eyes flickered to Lucy and Remus.

"I've been hearing some very strange things," he said slowly. "The Death Eaters seem to be a bit more active than usual lately. They showed themselves at the Quidditch World Cup, didn't they? Someone set off the Dark Mark . . . and then, do you remember hearing about that Ministry of Magic witch who's gone missing?"

"Bertha Jorkins?" said Harry.

"Exactly . . . she disappeared in Albania, and that's definitely where Voldemort was rumored to be last—" Why did he know where Voldemort was rumored to be last? Lucy looked at Remus whose lips were pressed together tightly, "—And she would have known the Triwizard Tournament was coming up, wouldn't she?"

"Yeah, but . . . it's not very likely she'd have walked straight into Voldemort, is it?" said Harry.

"Listen, I'm not sure you remember us mentioning it— if we ever have —but Moony and I—" Harry looked at Remus who looked only at Sirius, "—Knew Bertha Jorkins," said Sirius grimly. "She was at Hogwarts when I was, a few years above your dad and me and she was an idiot. Very nosy, but no brains, none at all. It's not a good combination, Harry. I'd say she'd be very easy to lure into a trap.

"So . . . so Voldemort could have found out about the tournament?" said Harry. "Is that what you mean? You think Karkaroff might be here on his orders?"

"I don't know," said Sirius slowly, "I just don't know . . . Karkaroff doesn't strike me as the type who'd go back to Voldemort unless he knew Voldemort was powerful enough to protect him. But whoever put your name in that goblet did it for a reason, and I can't help thinking the tournament would be a very good way to attack you and make it look like an accident."

"Looks like a really good plan from where I'm standing," said Harry grinning bleakly. "They'll just have to stand back and let the dragons do their stuff."

"Right, these dragons," said Sirius, speaking very quickly now. "There's a way, Harry. Don't be tempted to try a Stunning Spell, dragons are strong and too powerfully magical to be

knocked out by a single Stunner, you need about half a dozen wizards at a time to overcome a dragon—"

"Yeah, I know, I saw," said Harry. Sirius looked to Lucy and Remus,

"And ideas on what to do about the dragon?"

"Well, there are Switching Spells but what's the point of Switching anything? Unless you swapped its fangs for wine-gums or something that would make it less dangerous," Remus listed off on his fingers, "The trouble is not much is going to get through a dragon's hide. I'd say Transfigure it, but something that big, would be difficult for even a wizard like Dumbledore I suppose. I mean, unless you're supposed to put the spell on yourself? Maybe to give yourself extra powers? But they're not simple spells,any seventh year would even know."

"Babe!" Lucy cut him off, "You're freaking Harry out. Remus looked at Harry who had turned an ashy color.

"Sorry, Harry."

"It's fine," he croaked.

"You can't use potions for this task can you?" Theo wondered.

"No, I can't use anything but my wand."

"Do you think they'll have you battling a dragon?" Lucy asked and Harry shook his head.

"Ron's brother is here, Charlie, and I don't think he'd let anyone hurt the dragons." Lucy nodded her head, no, she supposed Charlie Weasley would sooner give Harry a swirly in Moaning Myrtle's toilet than let him try to harm one of his dragons.

"So then you have to get past it, to get something?" Tahani said, "Maybe to get to a finish line, like a race?" Harry shrugged.

"I have no idea," Harry stressed, his fingers ran and pulled at the ends of his hair. "I'm going to be murdered by a dragon. It's going to swoop down the minute—"

"That's it!" Lucy shouted, the room jumped, "Swooping! Harry, what's the thing you're best at?" She wondered rhetorically.

"Surviving when the odds are against him?" Theo muttered from her left,

"Finding trouble?" Tahani muttered at her right, Lucy nudged the both of them with her elbows.

"Flying you bullies," she answered, "Harry's one of the best fliers I've ever seen."

"So?" Sirius wondered, "He can't bring the broom with him."

"But I can call it, can't I?" Harry wondered, his eyes wide and lit with excitement, "The spell Flitwick showed us last week— uh, Theo what was it?" He asked, snapping his fingers trying to remember.

"Accio?"

"Yes! I need Hermione!" Harry jumped to his feet. He hugged Sirius tightly around the middle and he kisses Lucy's cheek the same way she had always kissed Mrs. Weasley's and he jumped, "I might actually survive this!"

"Of course you will, and after the task I'll be there to tell you there was nothing to worry about," Sirius grinned.

"You'll be at the task?" Sirius blinked, Remus moved forward,

"Harry not even the Minister himself would be able to stop us from being there for you. We might not be able to see you before and wish you luck but I'm certain between Padfoot—" Remus placed his hand on Sirius' shoulder, "—And Lucy over there you will see some sort of giant sign with your face on it when you look out into the stands."

"Like you won't be wearing a shirt that says 'Team Harry Potter' over one of his baby pictures," Lucy laughed. Harry's cheeks darkened at the thought. He looked to Remus who held a hand up as if to let the young boy he didn't have to worry about the shirt idea.

Sirius opened his mouth to say something only to be cut off by Tahani's loud yawn. The room turned to her and her drooping eyes.

"You need to go bed, it's late," Lucy told her, Tahani pouted,

"I guess." Lucy dropped a kiss to Tahani's forehead,

"I'll see you next week, be good okay, I don't need anymore letters about how Madam Prince found you past curfew in the library."

"Nerd," Harry laughed, Tahani reached over and pinched the Boy-Who-Lived side and he, with a loud laugh, knocked into Theo who looked dryly at the two of them.

"You two are the worst," he told him, both Harry and Tahani grinned,

"And yet you wouldn't trade us for the twins," Tahani pointed out. Theo kept silent, he turned to Lucy who didn't hesitate to wrap him in a tight hug. She pulled back and held him at arm's length.

"Try not to get into anymore fights alright, I don't want to see any of you hurt, alright?"

"Yes mum," Theo breathed, a smile on his lips.

"Good, now off to bed, all three of you," Lucy said ushering them out of the room. Once they were gone and Lucy could no longer hear their voices in the tunnel she turned to her brother.

"So," She wondered, "When were you going to tell me and Remus you were keeping an eye out on Death Eater activity?"

* * *

**November 24, 1994**

Her ears were ringing, Lucy's that is. With the Weasley children and Ophelia behind her and Sirius and Remus on either side of her— Tahani, Theo and Hermione all lined up next to Sirius —they waited in the wooden stands for the tournament to start.

"Now!" Dumbledore's voice called out loudly, magically enhanced, "I welcome you to the first task of the first Triwizard Tournament held in two-hundred-and-two years." The Headmaster paused to allow the crowd to cheer wildly. "Our first champion is Cedric Diggory—" The Hogwarts students cheered madly, "Has preselected a model of a dragon to which he must face in order to get the golden egg the dragon keepers have placed in the dragons nest if he so wishes to pass onto the second task; as must the rest of our champions must do with their own dragons and eggs. Now, Cedric Diggory!"

**...**

Harry, after Cedric, Krum and the French Champion walked past the trees, through a gap in the enclosure fence and into the arena. Sirius reached for Lucy's hand and grasped it tightly in his, his knuckles were white and her fingers were quickly turning a bright purple color; not that she noticed, her sole focus was on the small speck of a boy in front of her and just how loudly her heart was beating in her ears.

Remus grabbed her other hand, though unlike Sirius' grip he was gentler, he brought Lucy's knuckles up to his lips and pressed a worrying kiss to her skin. The other end of the arena opened and scuttling out to her eggs that laid in the middle of the arena, with her wings half-furled, and her yellow eyes upon Harry, a monstrous, scaly, black lizard, thrashing her spiked tail, leaving yard-long gouge marks in the hard ground stood a Hungarian Horntail.

He raised his wand. _Please_, Lucy pleaded in her head, _Please let him be okay._

"Accio Firebolt!" he shouted. Nothing happened for a moment, nothing was happening for a moment and then she heard it speeding through the air behind Harry; the Boy-who-Lived turned and saw his Firebolt hurtling toward him around the edge of the woods, soaring into the enclosure, and stopping dead in midair beside him, waiting for him to mount.

"He did it!" Lucy cheered, she turned to Sirius, "He did it!"

"He did it!" Sirius cheered back, Lucy took her hand from Remus and hugged her brother tightly as they jumped for the boy; she then, when she let go of Sirius, turned to Remus and clutched him close too.

Bagman— as Harry swung his leg over the broom and kicked off from the ground —was shouting something but Lucy was too focused with craning her neck to the sky, her eyes focused on Harry to listen to him.

He dived. The Horntail's head followed him; Lucy knew what it was going to do and pulled out of the dive just in time; a jet of fire had been released exactly where Harry would have been had he not swerved away; though it was no different from dodging a bludger Lucy let out a scream of relief.

"Great Scott, he can fly!" yelled Bagman as the crowd shrieked and gasped. "Are you watching this, Mr. Krum?"

Harry soared higher in a circle; the Horntail was still following his progress; its head revolving on its long neck, if Harry kept this up, the dragon would be too dizzy to do much of anything. Harry plummeted just as the Horntail opened its mouth, but this time he was less lucky than he had been the last time— though Harry missed the dragon's flames the beast's tail came whipping up to meet him, and though he swerved to the left, one of the long spikes grazed his shoulder —and the scream that Lucy let out involuntary hadn't come from a place of relief.

If Sirius didn't collapse it was only because of the grip he had on Theos shoulder.

Harry zoomed around the back of the Horntail. The young boy began to fly, first this way, then the other, not near enough to make the dragon breathe fire to stave him off, but still posing a sufficient threat to ensure she kept her eyes on him. Her head swayed this way and that, watching him out of those vertical pupils, her fangs bared.

Harry flew higher. The Horntail's head rose with him, her neck now stretched to its fullest extent, still swaying, like a snake before its charmer. Harry rose a few more feet, and she let out a roar of exasperation. He was like a fly to her, a fly she was longing to swat; her tail thrashed again, but he had become too high to reach. She shot fire into the air, which he dodged— Lucys chest rose and fell with anticipation —the dragon jaws opened wide and then she reared, spreading her great, black, leathery wings at last, and then Harry dived.

Before the dragon knew what he had done, or where he had disappeared to, he was speeding toward the ground as fast as he could go, toward the eggs now unprotected by her clawed front legs, he had taken his hands off his Firebolt the same way any chaser would do when handling a quaffle, and he had seized the golden egg.

And with a huge spurt of speed, he was off, he was soaring out over the stands, the heavy egg safely under his uninjured arm, and the crowd, which was screaming and applauding as loudly as the Irish supporters at the World Cup lost it.

"He did it!" Lucy cheered!" She kissed Remus excitedly, "He did it!" She spun around to the Weasleys and OPhelia and grabbed her cousin and pulled her tightly into a hug.

"Look at that!" Bagman was yelling. "Will you look at that! Our youngest champion is quickest to get his egg! Well, this is going to shorten the odds on Mr. Potter!" Charlie and the other dragon keepers rushing forward to subdue the Horntail.

"Come on," Sirius tugged on Lucy's arm, Ron and Hermione and Meiri, Theo and Thanani led the three grown wizards to where the champions would be. _He's alive!_ Was all Lucy could think as she was lead from the stands.


	18. December 1994 - chapter eighteen

**December 1, 1995**

_Nine year old Lucrtia Black sat quietly in one of the many closest of Grimmauld Place. A wall of old shoes had been between her and the door, and the ends of old coats— coats Lucy could place from the portraits that donned the halls of the ancestral hall —hung over her like a curtain. Lucy hopped that if her mother did open the closet door— if she ripped the door open, screaming for her to come out —that the coats and the shoes would stop her from being seen._

_The young girl could hear her mother on the floor below her yelling, every so often something crashed against the wall— every time Lucy flinched —and Lucy could hear the ornate vase in the sitting room smashing or the fancy dinnerware that was no longer used hit the floor. Lucy could hear the portraits of her ancestors, of her great-grandfather and her great-great aunt trying to calm her mother down and she could hear her mother barking at them._

_Her brother was dead and her mother was insane. Her father was dead and her other brother had abandoned her. Lucy's knees were pulled up to her chest, she rested her chin on them and flinched as Kreature let out a strangled yelp; if she were anything like Regulus she would have left the closest to stand in front of Kreature, the same way he had once stood in front of her._

_But she wasn't like her brother— she wasn't like either of them —she was scared. She was petrified of her mother and her mother's blazing eyes and what her mother might do to her this time she got her hands on her; Lucy was petrified of what might happen if Kreature were to find her mother's wand._

Lucy woke up on the eighth anniversary of her mother's death in the arms of the man she loved, a man her mother would have hated for no other reason than the fact he was breathing. A man Lucy couldn't imagine not loving.

_My mother is dead. My mother is dead. My mother is dead. My mother is dead. My mother is dead._

The pads of Lucy's fingers ran across Remus' jaw, over the ends of the scar that ran across his face, up past the tips of graying mustache and into his hair. A hummed sound of agreement came from his throat, and Lucy smiled.

Her mother would've hated Bill, she would've hated the Weasleys and Dora and Penny and Tahani and Harry; she would've hated everything about Lucy's life if she were alive. From the fact that she wasn't married to the fact she played Quidditch to how she dressed, and yet, though she tried to ignore it, Lucy wondered, if her mother could have gotten better.

_My mother is dead. My mother is dead. My mother is dead. My mother is dead. My mother is dead._

If with treatment, if she had pushed and pushed and begged Cissy to help her push, could healers somehow have fixed her mother's mind? Could they have had a relationship towards the end of her life? Sure she had hurt Lucy before they had lost Regulus but was there anyway— any world in any universe —where she and her mother got along?

Where relief didn't flood her body when she found out she was dead?

_Dumbledore's office never really changed. Sure sometimes when Lucy found herself sent to the headmasters office— for dueling, or helping Mia with the vaults —there was a new gizmo in the corner or a book she'd never seen before but for the most part the office has not changed since she'd been pulled there by her head of house that early November morning._

_Fawks, the phoenix, slept soundly on his perch and Dumbledore, in glittering yellow robes, sat at his desk. Bill sat just outside the office doors on the circular stone steps. The Headmaster had his hands neatly folded in front of him and a kind yet sad smile was on his face._

_Her mother was dead. Lucy frowned in her seat, her fingers curled around the edges, her mother was dead. The words didn't connect in her brain. Her mother, she thought slowly, like each letter was covered in honey, was dead._

_"Dead, sir?"_

_"I'm afraid so Lady Black." Lucy jolted at the title. Her mother was dead, she was Lady Black._

_"I'm sorry— I well —dead? As in no longer living?" That was the meaning of the word wasn't it? She wasn't confused, her mother being dead meant she was no longer alive._

_"Yes, I'm sorry." No longer living. Lucy blinked, relief flooded her veins, everything inside her leapt upwards, her heart into her lungs and her lungs into her throat and the happiness she had felt before coming into the office jubilant._

_If dead meant no longer alive and that meant Lucy was free— free of chance of ever having to go back to Grimmauld Place —then it meant she was safe. She was safe. Lucy leaned forward— Dumbledore stood and his hand entered his pocket for his wand, he thought perhaps Lucy would be sick —and breathed._

"Morning," Remus cooed, Lucy, breathing, ignoring where her thoughts had gone, ran her thumb over the shell of his ear,

"Morning," she murmured.

Remus' arms pulled her closer, "You're thinking too hard," Remus told her, he dipped his head and his nose grazed against his. Her mother would hate him and for what, over something that he couldn't control? Lucy threw her leg over his, the hair on his tickled her bare skin.

_My mother is dead. My mother is dead. My mother is dead. My mother is dead. My mother is dead._

"I'm sorry did my brain wake you up?" She joked, Remus humphed with a smile, his eyes were still closed and Lucy could feel his eyelashes flutter against her cheek.

_My mother is dead. I love him. My mother is dead. I love him. My mother is dead. I love him. My mother is dead. I love him._

"Completely." It was quiet for a minute. Everything hurt because Lucy didn't miss her mother, she didn't miss the beatings or the lashings or the rice or anything, she didn't feel upset her mother was dead, she was upset she never got to experience what her brothers did. She missed what she never got, she missed the chance her mother had thrown away, she missed what could have been like a twin she had never met or a limb that had been removed when she was still too young to remember it.

What could have been haunted her.

"My mothers been dead for eight years today," Lucy said, Remus opened his eyes and in the sea of apple green were flecks of brown that sparkled gold.

"She can't hurt you anymore," Remus told her.

"I know."

"You're nothing like her." Lucy tucked her head under his chin but didn't respond because in some ways perhaps she was.

"Why didn't she love me?" Lucy asked in a small, vulnerable voice. Remus pulled her so that while his back was flat against the mattress she was on his chest; he ran his fingers through her hair, pulling at the ends, lifting ebony hair up into the air before letting it drop against her skin.

Why hadn't her mother loved her like she had loved Regulus? Why hadn't her father doted on her like he had once done to Sirius and then Regulus? Why had neither of her parents loved her like they had loved her brothers or how her uncle and aunt had loved her cousins, why hadn't anyone besides Regulus loved her as a child?

"I don't—" Remus paused, his hand slipped up under her shirt and his fingers ran along the scars on her back, "—Your mother was a monster, she didn't know how to love you properly."

"I wish she had," Lucy said tiredly. She wished her mother had loved her, she wished someone besides her brother had, she wished she hadn't had to wait for Bill and the Weasleys. She wished she had been safe; she'd only been a child.

Remus pressed a firm kiss to the crown of her head, "I love you," he told her and her chest warmed.

_My mother is dead. I love him. My mother is dead. I love him. My mother is dead. I love him. My mother is dead. I love him._

"I love you too," she told him.

* * *

_December 5, 1994_

The world was cold and everything was white; snow fell soberly outside the windows of Dora Tonk' and Penny Haywoods apartment. Lucy could make out light from behind the heavy layer of clouds that covered the sky and as she stretched across the two womens couch Dora, with a neon green mohawk paced.

Lucy was in a pair of mismatched pajamas and woolen socks Mrs. Weasley had knitted for her the year before; she wore the sky blue long sleeve shirt that was supposed to match the incredibly short shorts that went with it, and the thick black cotton pajama pants that were supposed to go with it's matching t-shirt.

Dora's hair changed as she reached to grab onto the ends of it— something, anything —to long purple tendrils. Lucy's eyes followed her cousin back and forth from one end of the livingroom to the other. When Dora had owled her claiming that it was urgent Lucy had thought that perhaps she and Penny had gotten into an argument or that Ben Cooper was dead in their apartment because he'd slipped and fallen and because she was an auror a dead body— accident or not —was something no one could ever find out had ever been in her apartment.

But it wasn't either of those two options, no, Dora wanted to propose; she had been trying to propose the past two weeks and every time she had something come up or she had somehow messed up and instead of asking the blonde witch to marry her had asked her to pass the bred or cook dinner that night.

"It's a nightmare!" Dora paced, her fingers curled around the ends of her hair, the ring box was flipped open and sat idly on the living room table Lucy had once kicked over.

It was a pretty ring, the gold band, as it slipped up to the heart shaped diamond was crafted into two hands; when Lucy had been shown the ring Dora had claimed she'd bought it because Penny was the witch who held her heart in her hands.

"You're a nightmare," Lucy said, "You know Penny wants to marry you. I don't know why you're freaking out, I mean just get down on one knee while she's making eggs or something for breakfast and pop the question already."

"But it has to be perfect!" Dora emphasized, "Penny's only ever dreamed about her wedding— her engagement, the names of our kids Lucy —it needs to be perfect!" Yeah, Lucy nodded, That sounds like Penny.

"Okay, okay, okay," Lucy swung her legs around so that her feet were flat on the floor, "Perfect, huh?" she hummed. Lucy closed her eyes and put herself in Penny's place, what would she want Remus to do? She tried not to think about how much the thought warmed her.

_We could be in bed,_ Lucy thought,_ naked and panting and he could kiss me and tell me he loved me and just as I'm curling into his side he could reach over to the bedside table and pull out a ring, he could ask me like that._ He would never though, she thought back to January and how he'd claimed he couldn't give her a real life and perhaps that'd changed— he claimed to love her, he lived with her —but still, something in Lucy's gut told her it'd never happen, the warmth though, from the image she had conjured in her head, stayed pricking inside of her though..

She breathed and thought of Penny. She thought of Potion ingredients and corny jokes and the color pink because even if it wasn't Penny's favorite color she always seemed to just be the real life version of the softest pink in the crayon box.

She thought of Penny's best qualities, and how no matter what Penny was loyal. She was kind and caring and how she was happy her cousin was lucky enough to find herself someone like Penny, and she thought of Penny's sister Beatrice and how important family was to her and how when she and Dora did get engaged she would speed off to her parents house to show them.

Lucy opened her eyes and bit her bottom lip.

"What about Christmas?" Lucy wondered, "As a gift, put the ring in a bunch of boxes and that way by the time she's gotten to it you're on your knee and there's mistletoe above you and you say something sweet and romantic?"

Dora shook her head, "Penny thinks anniversaries on holidays are just asking for something to go wrong, but a cute idea, like a really cute idea." Lucy grinned,

"Aren't you happy it's me here and not Mia?" Lucy joked at their friends expense because it was true, in school as much as Mia had liked Charlie and Charlie had liked Mia between the Vaults and Qudditch and dragons neither of them had the brain space to romance the other like the characters from the romance novels Mrs. Weasley pretended she didn't read.

"Course," Dora grinned, "You're my favorite cousin." Lucy's heart warmed because no matter what she had Dora, no matter where Bill was in the world or if Remus and Sirius left and the kids no longer wanted to be around her she had Dora.

"What about a party?" Lucy wondered, "Engagement parties are a thing right?"

"Usually they're for afterwards," Lucy shrugged. "And what do you mean party?" Dora's hair shortened, the color turned from purple to a bright neon pink that almost hurt to look at and Lucy could count the multiple piercings in her cousin's ear as the metamorphmagus sat next to her, scooping the ring up off the table.

"I mean, my birthdays in a week right? And our friends are coming, why not rope Penny's family in and before the cake or something, propose?"

"It's your birthday!"

"And?" Lucy wondered, "I'll have another birthday next year and the year after that and every other year for the rest of my life cause that's kinda how they work. Sharing it so you have an excuse to propose to Penny in such a spectacular way her socks are blown off her bloody feet would be an honor." Dora looked at the ring in her hands and then back up with Lucy.

"You're sure?"

"Of course I'm sure, besides my birthday's a Sunday, Remus, Sirius and I are doing something with the kids in Hogsmeade anyway so using the actual party as a cover is fine." Dora beamed, throwing her arms tightly around Lucy. Dora brought the pure-blooded witch into a tight hug, Lucy couldn't help but shriek as Dora cackled, their cheeks pressed together and Lucy wormed her own arms around her cousin.

"I bloodly fucking love you, you know Lucy!"

"You fucking better!" Lucy laughed.

* * *

**December 6, 1994**

Theo was going to Yule ball with Meiri, though they were going as friends. Or so the young boy's letter stressed. When he had asked Lucy to send him and Harry— Harry had apparently jumped on at the bottom of the letter and asked for dress robes of his own since he'd already sent a letter to Sirius and forgotten to include the request —dress robes Lucy had made sure to ask Mrs. Weasley when she was going to pick up Ron and Fred and George's own dress robes so she wouldn't have to go shopping alone.

And she was happy she had, because as Mrs. Weasley picked up an ancient looking pair of dress robes with pinkish lace frills and red ribbons by the cuffs Lucy knew what would have happened if she had not been there.

One of the boys would have been forced to wear them for at least most of the night if they didn't want to incur McGonagall's wrath. Mrs. Weasley held up the brown vest she had picked out and held it against the monstrous looking robes with a contemplating look on her face.

"What do you think dear?" Mrs. Weasley wondered, her eyes narrowing. "I know the patterns are different but the colors, they go well together, don't they?"

"Not really," Lucy said evenly, "The vest is nice but Mrs. Weasley those robes look like they could be used as curtains for your aunt Muriel." The apples of Mrs. Weasleys face reddened.

"Oh well, I mean I suppose I could take off the lace—"

"Or you could actually let me buy the boys their dress robes, it'll let you buy new dresses for Meiri and Ginny," Lucy said. Mrs. Weasley grimaced, she looked at the robes in her hands and plucked at the pink lace by the robes lapels.

"I don't know, you shouldn't have too—"

"—I want to," Lucy said. More often than not she had this argument with Bill or Mr. Weasley, whenever Mrs. and Mr. Weasley were going to fall behind on bills or they were struggling to buy Fred and Groge a new used pair of shoes because they had grown out of their old ones and there was only just so much magic could do. "You and Mr. Weasley and everyone else always say I'm like family, let me buy the boys their dress robes."

"Dress robes are expensive—" Mrs. Weasley said, her voice soft, and Lucy places a hand on the woman's shoulder,

"—So I'll make sure to use my mother's money to buy them," she grinned. Mrs. Weasley snorted, they both knew Walburga Black would rather roll over in her grave then have a sickle of her money head towards a Potter and a gaggle of blood-traitors.

"You're sure?" Lucy looked at the robes, even if she was hurting for money she would've offered to pay for the robes rather than let one of the boys wear what was in Mrs. Weasleys hands.

"Of course I am, now why don't we put what you have back and head over to Madam Malkins?" Lucy suggested.

"Alright," Mrs. Weasley placed her palm against Lucy's cheek and smiled softly at her, her eyes shimmered with a motherly pride that Lucy had never quite gotten used to seeing.

* * *

**December 8, 1994**

Remus, locked in the office of Constellation Commerancy, was hiding from the world, trying to pretend as if everything was fine and nothing was the matter. Of course there had been talk since Remus' public outing back in June— some people had called for stricter legislation when it came to dealing with werewolves, they thought Remus Lupin had somehow gotten one over on the Hogwarts headmaster —but between the news of Sirius' false imprisonment coming to light and Lucy's trail and what had happened at the Quidditch World Cup that was all it had been, talk.

But that cold December morning when the Prophet's owl set down the days paper it appeared it wasn't just talk anymore; the Ministry was making its move, and front and center, leading the charge against werewolves and setting up her anti-half-breed platform, was a woman Lucy had never even heard of before. Dolores Umbridge.

She was a tiny woman, who on the front page of the paper was smiling like the cat who'd caught the canary. She was squat looking— her face was flat and her eyes were wide enough apart Lucy thought she resembled a toad —who wore a fuzzy pink pillbox hat and matching fuzzy pink shawl over her broad shoulders. Dolores Umbridge wanted to propose a bill to the Wizengamot court that would not only force werewolves from living in highly populated areas like London or Diagon Alley but force them to reveal what they were to any future employers virtually eliminating them from the job market, and she wanted to call it the Lupine Law.

She said that werewolves were a danger and what if something had happened in June— had happened before June —what if a child had been bitten because a careless, greedy werewolf hadn't disclosed his sickness? What if a child had been killed?

Because that's who she was starting her crusade for; the children.

Lucy sat with Sirius at the kitchen table, her mother's voice crowed in the back of her head, You know what to do, and she did. Because despite being a known killer— Death Eater killer or not she was a killer —and despite being Bellatrix Lestrange's cousin and despite being the girlfriend to a werewolf her money was as gold as anyone else's and she had so, so much of it.

More than enough.

The paper sat in the middle of the table, next to Dolores Umbrige in the moving picture was one of their fathers old classmates, someone who Lucy could remember coming to both his and her mothers funerals, Tiberus Ogden, and on the other side of him was the Minister himself, the two of them showing their support of Dolores Umbriges bill.

"How well do you remember him?" Lucy asked her brother, she stretched her arm across the table and tapped Tiburs Ogdens face with the tip of her nail. He was a dark skinned man, old and withered, but in the photo, under his well kept top hat, he smiled at the crowd of reporters. Sirius shrugged.

"Not that well, he came to dinner a few times growing up, but that's all really." Lucy nodded.

"He's on the take," Lucy stated, and Sirius huffed through his nose,

"He was my father's friend, of course he is." Though they had been small bills— laws that cut the tax on imports and exports, laws that pushed back restricted land so rich purebloods could hunt —father and uncle Cygnus had both gotten bills introduced and passed through friends, just as Lucius Malfoy and Theo's father did the same now then.

"Do you think he'd set aside his principles for enough money?" Sirius shrugged,

"He could be labeled a Blood-traitor for voting no," Sirius said, his voice heavy and thick.

"He could be rich if he does though," Lucy said, "Flint imports just expanded," she told him, "There's more money being deposited in the family vault than ever before."

"We'd have to buy off more than three-fourths of the court, not just half," Sirius said, "Can we really make them all rich?" The family vault was large— the largest in all of Europe —and though millions of galleons rolled in every month it wasn't bottomless.

"We can make enough of them, and well, how much traction can this Umbrige woman really get if the Minister pulls his support too?" Sirius' eyebrows shot up.

"You want to buy off Fudge?" Lucy smirked wryly at her older brother, her fingers ran through her hair, it was greasy and in need of a wash.

"It's not really buying him off if I'm just backing his next campaign, is it?" Sirius smirked, he leaned forward on his forearms, he looked like their father. The thought stuck Lucy over the head like an ill swung Beaters batt; between how his curls framed his face and how his eyes sparked to life almost cunningly it was as if Lucy was looking at an old photo of their father, one from before either she or he or Regulus had been born.

If he looked like their father would that mean she looked like their mother?

"Andy, she and Amelia Bones were roommates back in school, last I heard they still talk, if you talk to Fudge I'll talk to Ogden and see if Andy'll talk to her," Sirius proposed, the corners of his lips were turned up.

"Then we'll go from there," Lucy nodded, getting up from her chair.

**….**

Lucy wore her finest robes, the trim on the robes were a golden thread and the fabric itself was a royal, plum like purple color, her hair was pinned up and the loose hairs framed her face, the heel of her boots thumped against the tile flooring as she walked towards the Minister of Magics office. Witches and wizards— none of them looking at her but rather the files in their hands, the memos they were reading or the other person they were talking to —pass her by as she pushes open the large wooden door that leads to a small carpeted waiting room.

The walls were brown and the carpet was grayish off white color; there were two small leather couches that sat next to each other, and coffee tables with stacks of old Witch Weekly magazines and Daily Prophet papers that stood in front of them.

A witch— a young brunette woman with a large iridescent feather quill sticking through her bun —sat at the small desk just adjacent to the door that leads to the Minister of Magic's office; she filed her nails as the owl that sat on it's regal looking perch behind her slept.

"Hello?" Lucy spoke cheerily as she entered the waiting room. The door shut behind her with a click and the owl, still sleeping, ruffled its feathers.

The woman looked up, her dark eyes became almost comically wide, "L-Lady Black!" she squeaked, her file clattered to her desk top, Lucy smiled charmingly at the woman, she was no older than she was, perhaps they had gone to school together. "I-I," The woman breathed, "I didn't see an appointment with you today."

"Yeah I don't have one, I'm sorry to bother you, I know you must be busy," Lucy put her hands up in front of her apologetically as she got closer to the woman and the desk, "But is the Minister in? I was at my cousin's before, for tea, when her husband told me he was running for reelection this year and I wanted to contribute to his campaign personally."

"You did?" The woman blinked.

"Of course!" Lucy lied, "The Minster fast tracked Sirius' pardon and I never thanked him so I thought this was the least that could be done, I mean he gave me my brother back," Lucy's voice was sweet and soft and it almost hurt her throat to talk like that, "And well, my cousins husband, Lucius, he said that if I was going to contribute as a thank you personally I should do it now before he becomes too swamped with the election itself and work and well I was all like, but he's the Minster he's probably already to busy but do you know what my cousin's husband told me?"

"What?" the young woman's head bobbed forward, Lucy waved her hands and smiled. It was like leading a sheep to slaughter; Lucy almost felt bad for the woman but then she thought of Remus and the heavy feeling in her stomach disappeared.

"Lucius said that you do such a wonderful job maintaining the Minister's itinerary that even if I did stop by and thank the Minister to make a contribution then it wouldn't truly matter because you are just so wonderful at your job." The apples of the woman's cheeks pinked.

"Is-is that so?" No, Lucy almost wanted to laugh at the woman's bashful gaze, but she didn't, she smiled instead, more broadly than before.

"Of course," Lucy said and the woman bit her lip, she turned and looked at the door.

"Well," she paused, she stood up, her face still pink, "Have a seat, I'll let the Minster know you're here." Lucy smiled.

"Thank you!" Lucy moved to sit on one of the leather couches, her ankles crossed as she sat with her back parallel to the couchs back and her eyes skimmed the front covers of the Witch Weekly magazines on the tabletop.

**IRELAND WINS THE CUP! But who wins Lynch's heart?** Lucy rolled her eyes, **WEIRD SISTERS AND THEIR NEW ALBUM! **Lucy had listened to all of one song, not because she hated the band— she loved the Weird Sisters and on occasion still spoke to the guitarist Heathcoat —but because Myron Wagtail, the lead singer had written a song all about hooking up with a guest at her Christmas party the year before, and that wouldn't have been so bad if the song wasn't about how Myron hadn't hooked up with the Kestrels Keeper in her old bedroom. **BLACK IS BACK! ENGLAND'S TEN MOST RICHEST AND MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELORS!**

Lucy had only just moved to see what that article said when the Minister's office door opened and the woman stepped out smiling, "The Minster will see you now ma'am."

"Thank you," Lucy smiled. She moved past the woman and into the Minister's office— the accents of the room were gold, the large window behind the Minister's large desk looked out onto the muggle street, and the Minister himself, dressed in expensive robes and with his bowler hat hanging off the back of his chair, was already standing.

"Lady Black," Fudge greeted as his secretary shut the door behind her, "What a lovely day to see you." His shoulders were tense and his smile was strained and Lucy could see it in his eyes, he knew she wasn't there to thank him or to make a real contribution to his campaign.

"Sir," Lucy nodded, "It's wonderful to see you as well. You look exhausted." There were bags under his eyes and his cheeks seemed to have sunken since the World Cup.

"Yes well between my usual Minister duties and the Tournament going on over at Hogwarts and—"

"Your campaign?" Lucy guessed. The Minster breathed.

"Yes," he said, "And my campaign, there's hardly any time to sleep, let alone breath."

"Well," Lucy pulled out a large sack of galleons she'd gotten from Gringotts before apperating to the Ministry, the bag itself had an expansion charm placed on it, "Your campaign is why I'm here. I'm sure your secretary told you I wanted to make a donation?"

"Yes she did."

"I just, before I hand over a million galleons—" Fudge spluttered, his breath turned wheezy as he sat down, Lucy moved to sit across from him "—I just had a few concerns about your platform. I mean really I'd be more than happy to hand this over, the Black family has always been involved in politics one way or another, I'm sure you know that." Fudge nodded, "The new bill, the one Dolores Umbridge, your undersecretary, is trying to push through."

"What about it?" The Minister's voice squeaked.

"I don't agree with it in the slightest, neither does my brother, and well we both want to endorse a candidate this coming election, to help get the new Black family image out there, to clear away any bad blood that may be besmirching us, so I'm sure you get what I'm saying. Right sir?" Fudge drummed his fingers against the top of his desk.

"I'm sure you're aware Lady Black that even if I don't sign off on a bill Wizengamot can still push it through." It was true, legislator could still be passed by the court, even if the Minister didn't approve, as long as three fourths and the high warlock— Albus Dumbledore in this case —did approve, just as, in special circumstances like war the Minister doesn't need the court to sign in Orders.

"I know," Lucy told him, "But Wizgmot elections come up just after the vote don't they? It's a shame it's not right before but still, people'll still need their job after the vote." Fudge shifted in his seat.

"And what if I do support this bill? If this is something I want to run with?" Lucy blinked,

"Then I suppose my brother and I and our wallet will just go to your opposer." Fudges lips pressed together.

"I don't fundraise a million galleons in a normal campaign, with dozens of constituents," Fudge said, and it seemed like it was more for his benefit than hers.

"You don't." A million galleons wasn't needed to fundraise for a campaign, a million galleons was too much; it was just enough for some to go missing and for no one to notice.

"And all you want is this bill shut down?"

"And your reassurance that nothing like it will make an appearance while you're in office," Lucy said. "I love Remus Minister and if funding your campaigns until you no longer want to be Minster is what it's going to take then I'd happily back you for the rest of your career."

"The rest of it? I'm fifty-two Lady Black." Wizards could love upwards of a hundred years, though Lucy thought Fudge was a fool if the people would want him leading them for another hundred, they barely wanted him as their Minister then.

"Is that a deal Minister?" Lucy cocked a brow. Fudge blew a breath of hot air out of his mouth, he looked at his desk and then the bag of money still in Lucy's hand, and then lastly at her. He stuck his hand out, he eyed the sack of money once more, like a hungry predator waiting.

"It's a deal."

* * *

**December 11, 1994**

Lucy's birthday started out with Remus on top of her, his face buried in the juncture of her neck and shoulder and his hips rolling to meet hers; his arms on either side of her, casing her in. A bombinating nose came from Lucys throat as she slowly blinked awake, smirking Remus' lips left her neck.

"Happy birthday," he murmured, Lucy's heart thudded in her chest, sunlight streamed in through the gap between the bedroom curtains and— perhaps because she hadn't fully woken up yet —her nose was playing tricks on her because she could have sworn she smelled seaweed.

She could remember her childhood birthdays— her cousins and brothers birthdays —being filled with the familiar scent; it was family tradition their grandmother had brought back with her from Korea; apparently the soup was commemorate the pregnancy and labor of their mother and for the birthday boy or a girl to have a good luck throughout the year.

But it couldn't be seaweed soup because the last time anyone had made it for her she had been eight and it had been Araminta who'd made it for her.

Instead of thinking of soup Lucy focused on Remus, she breathed him in— she focused on how he smelled like pine and old parchment and her passion fruit soap —and she focused on how much she loved him.

"Thank you," she smiled, she leaned up and pressed her lips lightly against his, Remus leaned against her, deepening the kiss when the bedroom door burst open, Lucy pushed Remus off her her— he, with a dry expression on his face, settled on the bed next to her, propped up on his elbows —and reached for her wand that sat idly on her bedside table when she that the intruder was none other than her brother.

Grinning from ear to ear and with a large bowl in hands and a wrapped present under his armpit Sirius laughed, "Morning Goose!" Lucy blinked. "Happy Birthday!"

"Padfoot," Remus told Sirius, "I told you I'd get her up." Sirius smiled at his friend,

"Yeah a half hour ago Moony, you were taking too long," Sirius came into the room, he looked at the foot of the bed as if he was going to sit before looking at both Lucy and Remus. "I made miyeok guk."

Lucy blinked as her heart soared. _Why?_ She wondered, Sirius took a seat at the end of the bed and as Lucy took that large bowl of seaweed— and what looked like muscles —her stomach sunk because she hadn't made him miyeok guk for his birthday. It was something she hadn't even remembered until she'd smelt the air.

Lucy looked up at her brother, "Thank you." Sirius' tongue poked out from behind his teeth; even as a human sometimes he reminded Lucy of a dog, just as when he was a dog sometimes all Lucy could see were his humanistic mannerisms shining through. Remus lifted himself off the bed and Lucy, as her eyes flickered between him and Sirius followed him to his closet where he pulled out a small bag thats brim overflowed with colorful tissue.

"It's no problem, now eat up and open the present I got you," Sirius told her excitedly. Lucy placed the bowl in her lap,

"Maybe I want to open my present and then eat," she told her brother, her brows raised and a teasing grin plastered on her face. Sirius laughed and handed over the present. Lucy wasted no time in taring off the reflective purple wrapping paper— she threw it to the floor and from the corner of her eyes she saw Remus' shoulders shake with laughter —and the boxes top only be greeted with something she hadn't seen in years.

Her chollima; as every child always did, Lucy had a favorite toy, hers just so happened to be a stuffed figure of a chollima, a breed of winged horse that was primarily found in East Asia; muggle mythology mentioned the horse in stories, claiming that the chollima was too elegant a creature for any mortal man to ride. It was something her family had always found amusing as it was her grandmother's family who had been breeding them for centuries.

As a child she had called him Kyong, and just like the soup she hadn't thought about him in years.

"Why—why do you my chollima?" Lucy asked, she reached out to touch the winged stuffed animal and the toys faux maine felt just as soft as she could remember. There had been nights, after Regulus had gone back to school, she wasn't able to sleep without the horse by her side. She had always assumed her mother had thrown it out or burned it in the fore when her back was turned.

Why had she never noticed it went missing the same time Sirius had run away?

"I remember that thing," Remus said, he leaned towards Lucy who's brows knitted together because when had he ever seen her child toy; Remus looked at Sirius with a small grin, "You used to keep it on your nightstand, back at school." Sirius' cheeks flushed pink.

"I told you and Jamie it was my sisters," he muttered, Lucy picked up the old toy and held it against her chest. Sirius looked to Lucy and explained, "He was in my room when I left, I never meant to take him, I knew you loved him but by the time I realized he was with my stuff it was too late and I dunno—" he shrugged, "—It helped me whenever I thought of you."

He had missed her? Tears welled up in Lucy's eyes, "You missed me?" He had thought of her after he left? Emotion— Lucy wasn't sure which ones, but red hot, googu stick emotions —clawed their way up her throat. Dumbstruck Sirius blinked,

"Of course I did Goose." He said it like it was obvious, like she had known he had thought about her while at James Potter's side. There were other things in the box, trinkets from Diagon Alley and a record and there was soup on Lucys lap, but she had forgotten about everything as she lunged to hug her brother.

"Lucy the soup!" Remus yelped as Sirius and her fell backwards off the bed into seaweed soaked sheets and cackling limbs.

**…**

Lucy collapsed, under the weight of Tahani, the Weasley twins, Ophelia, and Ginny, hit the Hogshead floor with a loud and resounding thunderous thud. Aberforth, the bartender and owner of the inn didn't bother to even look over the dusty bar as the Seeker fell.

"Happy Birthday Lucy!" The twins chorised from on top of her. Lucy could feel Ginny's knobby kneecaps in her thigh and Tahani's chin in her collarbone.

"You're both assholes," Lucy sputtered from the bottom of the pile, "I swear to Merlin." Both twins laughed, Ophelia pushed her boyfriend up off of her— as she was sandwiched between him and Lucy's left arm —and got to her feet. Being lead elbow first the redhead got to his feet.

Sirius and Remus both clasped Harry into a tight hug as Theo, who with an easy going grin on his face, tried to help Meiri up from the dogpile only to be pulled down when she lost her balance. Ron, as Hermionie elbowed him, snickered loudly at his cousin and siblings' antics.

Ginny and Tahani, once Meiri had been helped up, helped Lucy— who immediately sagged against Remus —up. Looking up at Remus with a grin on her face and her eyelashes fluttering Lucy snickered,

"They're trying to kill me Lupin!" Remus placed his hand on Lucy's waist, his eyes sparkling under her attention,

"You can handle it, I'm sure." Scoffing, feigning betrayal Lucy leaned away from the werewolf, she wrapped an arm around Theo— who, after helping Meiri to his feet, had stuffed his hands deep in his pockets —and pulled the boy closer to her.

"Theo will help ward off the gremlins, won't you?" Lucy wondered.

"Gremlins?" Fred— Lucy knew it was Fred because Ophelia's arm was wrapped around his brother's waist —scoffed.

"Gremlin? Please we all know if Forge and I were creatures we'd be dragons!" Fred placed his hands on his hips and sucked in a deep breath, puffing up his chest. Ginny, giggling, poked the older boy's stomach and he immediately deflated.

"Poltergeists maybe, but a dragon?" Ron laughed, Fred reached out to flick his brother's ear only for Meiri to swat his hand away. Lucy and Theo and Harry who had saddled up on the other side of her all watched on amusedly as Meiri stepped forward, in front of Ron who looked like a gleeful child who'd just tattled.

Like Percy always had growing up. It'd been so long since Lucy had spoken to the third oldest Weasley child but between his job— and the tournament —and the fact he had just moved out and into his own apartment in Diagon Alley and the fact that she was back to training with her team as they ready themselves for the upcoming season, neither Lucy or Percy had much time to talk besides the occasional owl.

"Be nice, he wasn't saying anything that wasn't true you know!" Fred stuck his tongue out at Meiri. Theo turned to Lucy, smiling as easily as any of the Weasley children in front of them did on a daily basis.

"Happy birthday," he said. Slinging her arm around his shoulder Lucy pulled the young wizard into a hug.

**…**

She was vibrating where she stood, Lucy, as more and more people entered the house Kreature had decorated while she and Remus and Sirius had been with the kids could hardly contain her manic like grin from encapsulating her face.

Talking to Penny as she held onto Remus' hand— Sirius, across the room, was in the middle of a lively conversation with Birch and Penny's mother the Lucy couldn't even begin to wonder what the topic of conversation was —Lucy could hardly concentrate. She was excited for her cousin and friend; she was ecstatic.

"—So I'm closing the shop last night, and well you know we close early on Saturdays, and this woman comes in ten minutes to closing asking for a potion only I tell I can't make any because we're closing and do you know what she said?" Penny wondered, scowling.

Remus' chuckled, "Something rude?"

"Why!" Penny explained, "She argued with me over why we were closing, like maybe because I want to or maybe, just maybe—" Penny stressed, "—It's because we actually close at eight, Merlin customers suck." She said, Remus hummed.

Though he was still unemployed for the time being he had worked dozens and dozens of customer service jobs, all of them sucking; or at least that's what he always said when he told Lucy about a woman who argued with him over the price of a book or how a man had sent back his deli meats three separate times because they were either too thick or too thin or too pink.

'Tell me about it, there was this one time, I think I was like twenty—" Lucy loved Remus but she wasn't ashamed to admit she turned him out as she looked out at the party.

Professor Sprout, Madam Hooch— who had just gotten back from her honeymoon —and Mrs. Weasley spoke. Mrs. Weasley saying something pointed at Mr. Weasley and giggled. Professor Sprout covered her mouth as she giggled herself and Madam Hooch laughed boisterously.

Beatrice, Penny's sister sat next to Barnaby on the couch, she stared intently at the side of the young man's face, Lucy had never seen Barnaby in any kind of romantic light but she supposed someone was bound to. Rowan and Merula, two witches, who at one point would've rather dueled to the death than be in the same room stood near the kitchen entrance chatting, smiling.

Kingsley and Moody, both of whom Remus had looked wearily at when they arrived— Lucy had simply kissed his check when Remus had asked why she had invited the auror who had arrested her and Moody to her birthday —chatted. Moody had his back against a wall and Kingley every so often snagged a speared daegujeon off the plate Kreature carried around.

Ben hadn't been able to make it as he was in America meeting his girlfriend's family— Rowan had said something about them getting serious —but Andre, who was back in England to design new costumes for the Weird Sisters upcoming concert, was able to.

Ophelia— who Professor Sprout had been allowed to bring once Lucy had explained Dora would be proposing —Andy and Ted, spoke to Mr. Weasley who was more than likely asking Ted a million and one questions about muggle life and culture; Ted looked thrilled and both Ophelia and Andromeda looked more amused than anything.

Dora, with slicked back pink hair and in a pair of dress pants Lucy didn't know her cousin owned huddled on the stairs as she anxiously looked around at the party; Lucy met her cousins eyes— they were a bright blue color; freckles dotted her face —she turned to Remus. She squeezed his hand and the older man cut himself off mid-word.

"I'll be right back, I have to ask Dora something." Remus pecked the crown of her head.

"I'll be counting the minutes until you return," he joked, Lucy rolled her eyes as she pressed her hands flat against the stomach of her black and white gingham dress. Her heels clicked against the wood floor. She stopped midway up the stairs, a step below Dora.

"Will you calm down?" Lucy asked, "Everything'll be fine." For a second Lucy worried the pale skin of Dora's face would— literally —turn green as her lips pinched together.

"I just—what if—what if something goes wrong like I trip and I dunno kill Penny!" Dora hissed. Lucy's brows shot up,

"Why would you kill Penny by tripping?" Lucy was almost too afraid to know, but a bigger, louder part of her was too curious to not know what Dora was thinking.

"Cause what if I take her down too and I kill her and then she doesn't want to marry because I've killed her Lucy! I'll have not only ruined her perfect proposal but I'll have killed her too!" There were several things Lucy wanted to say about the scenario playing out in Dora's head, she took her cousins hands in hers,

"Dora look at me," Lucy commanded, Dora did, "You're being fucking ridiculous. You're not going to kill Penny, you might trip and fall but you're not going to murder Penny on the way down, got it."

"I—yeah, I just love her Lucy, like I really truly love her and I don't know what I'd do without her."

"Ten tell her that, when you're asking her to marry you, just think about her and how much you love her and nothing can go wrong okay?" Dora swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded.

"Right, you're right, nothing can go wrong, nothing will go wrong," Dora chanted, she breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth and Lucy beamed.

"Do you want to do it now?" Lucy wondered, "While you still have the confidence?" She asked in a teasing tone, Dora's foot knocked against Lucy's calf, but she nodded. Lucy turned to the party, and cupped her hands over her mouth.

"Can I get everyone's attention for a second!" Remus and Penny turned, as did both Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Moody and Kingsly; it took a second for the other party goers too— Irine Summerby, an auror Dora knew, the Tornadoes, a few of the potioneers Penny worked with —to quiet down, but when they did Lucy smiled.

"A few things before we bring out cake, the first being thank you all for coming, I know not everyone here actually knows me but trust me when I say thank you. The second, well, Pen?" Lucy motioned for Penny to join her and Dora on the stairs. Confused, Penny did so, looking back at Remus who shrugged.

When she had joined Lucy on the step below Dora Lucy took two steps down. "Dora," Lucy waved her hand, as if to say the floor was hers, as Lucy went over to Remus who looked at her with a quizzical gaze, Dora had moved to the step under Penny.

"Penelope Deirdre Haywood I love you." Pennys eyes got wide and her lips parted, Dora pulled the ring box from her pants pocket and Lucy could feel Remus' eyes as Dora got down on one knee. Dora looked up at Penny whose hands pressed against her chest. "I've been in love with you since I was thirteen, and if you let me, I want to be in love with you until the day I die." Dora paused. The room was silent and she flipped open the ring box. "Will you marry me?"

Lucy counted the time between the question by the beats of her heart; _one beat, two beat thr—_

"Yes! Merlin yes!" Penny went to kneel next to Dora only to realize the pair of them were on a flight of stairs too late; both witches unceremoniously tumbled down the stairs.

"Holy Merlin Penny!" Beatrice cried. Lucy and Remus, as did the rest of the guests, rushed forward to help them.

Dora, as Lucy helped her up— Remus helped Penny —laughed and looked at her fiancee with a lovesick gaze that made Lucy giddy for them. "You know I first fell in love with you in third year, when I took us both down the third floor corridor staircase and all you did was make sure I was okay."

With Remus' hand still on her elbow Penny surged forward, capturing Dora in a kiss.

* * *

**December 15, 1994**

Ted Tonks, dressed in slacks and a parka, looking every bit as muggle as Lucy— who wore dark antifit jeans that she tucked into her boots and the spiked leather jacket Bill had gifted her for her birthday the year before —both walked onto a gravel filled lot.

Cars, new and old, surrounded them as they walked up to the tiny olive green building where a man, wearing a cheap purple suit and large grin spoke to a greying man and the pimple faced boy next to him. The man wearing the purple suit shook the wrinkled man's hand and with his other he dropped a set of keys into the open palm of the beaming teenager. The man then looked to Ted and Lucy and the teenager led the man he'd come with in the direction of a dark blue Chevy car that waited idly near the entrance of the lot. The boy nearly skipped for joy as they got closer and close to the car.

"Welcome to Grease Lighting, I'm Abe the owner," the man with the cheap suit introduced. He stepped forward and stuck his hand out to Ted, who shook it. The man's eyes fluttered over Lucy appreciatively before snapping back to Ted; Ted's lips had thinned and Lucy's eyes narrowed at the salesman. "What can I help you folks with today?"

"My wife's cousin and I saw a listing in the paper for a nineteen-sixty-eight Pontiac Firebird, we were wondering if you still had it?" Ted asked, Lucy had her hands shoved deep in her pockets. The man's eyes sparkled,

"I do actually," he took three steps back from Lucy and Ted, "Follow me and I'll show you so the two of you can have a look at the car."

* * *

**December 20, 1994**

Though Lucy had sent Sirius and Remus to do it, with some guilt tripping and wide innocent puppy dog eyes that only Sirius could ever pull of so well, the two last living marauders had somehow managed to convince Minveria McGonagall to allow Harry, Tahani and Ginny— and the Weasley children —to visit home for Christmas Eve.

Lucy was buzzing because it wasn't just Harry's first Christmas with Sirius and Remus, and it wasn't just Sirius' first Christmas since escaping Azkaban, it was her first real Christmas with her brother. It was her first real Christmas with either one of her brothers since she was eight years old.

Growing up Sirius had always either stayed at school or gone to the Potters for Christmas and Easter; the only time he ever truly went back to Grimmauld Place was when their parents had made him during the Summer holidays.

It was why, in the dead of night, as both Sirius and Remus slept, Lucy was hellbent on decorating the house.

She hummed Christmas carols as she decorated, first she had hummed Have a Holly Jolly Christmas, and then Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer, then she sang the lyrics to Santa Claus is coming to Town under her breath before trying not belt out the words to the Mr. Heatmiser Mr. Freeze song she'd come to love.

The single red bow that was tied to garland line rested over each doorway of the house and spun around the rings of the staircase's railing, wreaths of holly were found on the front door and in the dining room— Lucy had covered the mostly unused dining room table with a tablecloth she'd boxed away while moving —six different stockings hung over the large fireplace— each one in different paints had its owners respective name printed on them —and an undecorated pine tree, with a box of decorations, sat in the living room, the top of it just shy of the ceiling.

"Lucy?" The witch turned around, in her hands were the cute Christmas themed dish towels she had bought with Mrs. Weasley when the pair of them had gone dress shopping.

"Remus? What are you doing awake?" She asked, Remus chuckled, his voice deep and still sleepy.

"I could ask you the same question," Remus replied, his arms crossed, "Is there some reason you had to do this while Padfood and I were sleeping or was it just a coincidence?" He wondered; Lucy shifted, she placed the snowman covered towels on the counter and shrugged.

"I wanted it to be a surprise," she said, but even before Remus settled a heavy look on her she knew that what she said hadn't been the truth; or at least hadn't been the whole truth. Because she had wanted it to be a surprise, the same way a child makes breakfast on mothers day or their fathers birthday. She wanted Sirius to look at her when he woke up the next morning and she wanted him to be as happy and excited about spending Christmas together as she was.

Remus moved closer, his hands gently grabbed her waist and dragged her forward— though it wasn't like she was protesting as he pulled her against his chest —and her arms wound themselves around his neck; her head fell back as she looked up at him through her lashes.

"I dunno, I just, I want everything to look perfect. I want this to be the best Christmas any of us have had in a long time," she told him; she could feel it in her chest though, and she was sure Remus knew that when she had said want she had meant need. She needed. She needed Christmas to be amazing, she needed Sirius to be happy and she needed the kids to be happy and she needed everything to go right.

She and Sirius had been distant since they'd started living together but ever since her birthday— ever since he had given her her childhood toy back and relieved that he had missed her —Lucy had wanted to fix that. If she and Reggie could be close why couldn't she and Sirius?

The house was going to look wonderful, everything was going to be great and Sirius was going to be impressed. She was going to show him she was worth being missed.

Remus smiled at her softly, his eyes tender and love radiated off him as his thumb drew gentle circles on the skin of her waist.

"It will be," Remus told her, "No matter how much or little you decorate or what gifts you get everyone this Christmas will be the best any of us have had in a long time, and do you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because we'll be together," Remus answered her, "How can Christmas not be amazing when I have you with me." _I love him,_ Lucy thought as her brother melted from her mind, _I love him, I love him, I love him._ She pressed her lips to his for a second, when he pulled away he rested his forehead against hers. "Come back to bed, you need sleep too."

"But the rest of the decorations—" Lucy tried to argue, she didn't try to pull away, though Remus clung to her together as if she had.

"—Can get done tomorrow," Remus told her, "After you come back from practice. We'll finish it up together."

"Yeah?"

"Of course," Remus said. And though the words I love you were still in her mouth, unsaid, it was if Remus understood them because when he squeezed her hips between his hands she heard him say it in the back of her mind. I love you.

**…**

The next morning at breakfast, as Sirius began to sit down Lucy pitter-pattered into the kitchen with bare feet.

"Morning Sirius," she smiled.

"Morning Goose—did you have Kreature do the decorations while we slept? Should I check my shoes for dead birds?" Lucy snorted thinking of the morning after her birthday and how she and Remus had woken up to Sirius' shrill scream.

"No," she told him, "I decorated. After you and Remus fell asleep. Do you like it?" Hope started to inflate inside of her like a balloon. Her shoulders rose subconsciously, her fists clenched together.

"Yeah," he said nonchalantly, "The house looks nice." And though he had completed her work— though he hadn't actually said anything wrong —something inside Lucy fell with a resounding, disappointing thud. She smiled anyway.

"Thanks."

* * *

**December 24, 1994**

The eight of them— the twins, Ron, Ginny, Meiri, Harry, Tahani and Theo —had flooed from McGonagall's office to Constellation Commernancy. Lucy had greeted Theo and Tahani with a tight hug as Sirius, who wore a Santa hat that jingled every time he moved, scooped Harry up into a tight bone crushing hug.

Remus, who with a mug of eggnog, jeered at his childhood friend from his spot next to Percy on the sofa. "Padfoot put Harry down! You're not twenty anymore and he's not a baby, you're going to hurt yourself!"

Molly and Arthur Weasley went one by one and greeted their children and niece, hugging each one as fiercely as they had the last, only for them all to switch as Sirius put Harry down and Molly hugged Ginny lastly; Molly, in a hug as bruising as Sirius' hugged Harry and both Ginny and Meiri jumped at Lucy as Theo, who was wearing the Weasley sweater he'd been given the year before, shook Mr. Weasley's hand.

Remus and Percy had both gotten up; Remus hugged Harry as Percy greeted Theo and Tahani, only to be cut off in his well wishes by Ginny who cheekly smiled up at her brother. His ears turned pink as red dusted his cheeks.

"Phelia says Merry Christmas," George said as he, in the same brotherly way he would Ginny Meiri, pecked her cheek. Lucy smiled at the mention of her cousin. She could remember Ophelia when she'd been born, tiny and quite; nothing like she was at sixteen.

"Tell her I said Merry Christmas too—" Lucy said as she gave Fred a one arm hug as George moved out of the way. "Merry Christmas Freddie!" She tugged at an end of his long hair teasingly; "Maybe your mum's right about Charlie and Bill being an influence."

"I pull it off better," Fred flipped his hair before following George over to Percy who looked at his younger brothers not at all ready to deal with whatever they had to deal out after almost three whole months of separation. The next person to hug her was Harry, who's already messy hair she ruffled. Laughing Harry tried to dance away from her, only to trip back and take Ron to the ground.

Lucy, chuckling and apologizing, dove to help the boys up as Tahani snickered at them, "Come on Harry how are you going to dance with Parvati tomorrow if you can't stay on your own two feet?"

Harry stuck his tongue out at Tahani who mimicked him, "Alright break it up, Tahani be nice it's Christmas, Harry, we already have Dora so there's no need to go falling into people."

"I wouldn't have fallen if Ron hadn't been there," Harry ribbed,

"If I hadn't been there you would've fallen on your butt," Ron said, elbowing his best friend joviliany.

"Then I guess it's a good thing you ate the last of my cookies," Meiri chimed in, she was already on the arm of the couch next to Theo. Her arm was around his shoulders as she leaned into him and his head was against her ribs; his hand rested on her knee just innocently enough for Lucy to know he wasn't even aware his hand was there. "You know, so Harry had all that extra padding to fall onto."

Mrs. Weasley disappeared into the kitchen to finish the roast; Remus went to join her only for the older woman to shoo him back to Harry and Sirius. Ron raised his hand as his mother cupped his sisters face between her hands only for Lucy to reach out and scoop it back down. "I'm sorry, do you want your mother to skin you on Christmas?"

"Fine," Ron rolled his eyes as Sirius and Remus sucked Harry into whatever conversation they were having. Percy, as Tahani and Ron jumped into the conversation between him and twins— distracting them —walked over to Lucy. He wasn't drunk but pink had started to crawl up the base of his neck and his usually flattened hair had started to lift.

"You'd think on Christmas they'd be nicer," he muttered. Lucy raised a brow.

"What'd they do?" She wondered.

"Called me Weatherbee, asked if Crouch had remembered my name yet," Percy muttered. Lucy looked at Sirius— he was laughing —and she grimaced.

"Fred and George are assholes," she told him, "But they love you, take what they say with a grain of salt, especially tonight."

"Why tonight?" Percy wondered.

"Cause you won't actually be seeing them until the next task, right?" Percy couldn't help but smile, the next task was two months away towards the end of February.

"Yeah, I—" Percy was cut off by a rapid knock coming from the front door. Mr. Weasley, who had sat down on the couch, turned to Lucy, only to find the Seeker already halfway to the door,

"Sirius, Remus!" She called. She threw open the door and revealed a grinning Ted Tonks, who in a scarf and sweater rubbed his hands together, "It's time!" Both Remus and Sirius stopped mid-laugh,

"Alright!" Remus said and the children's attention— along with Mr. Weasley and Percy's —split between the three of them.

"What's time?" Ron wondered as Sirius urged Mr. Weasley from his spot from the couch.

"Why do I have to get up?"

"It's better to just go along with it," Remus said easily. Mr. Weasley looked at Remus and then Sirius and Lucy who rolled her hand urging him to come forward. "It's a surprise!" Lucy said and Ted laughed,

"You're going to love it Arthur, swear it."

"Molly dear!" Mr. Weasley called out, "There's a thing!"

"What thing!" Mrs. Weasley called back, she walked into the living room with her apron on, and a turkey baster in her hand. "Oh, Ted? I didn't know you and Andromeda were coming."

"We're not," Ted said, "I just bought over Arthurs gift, these three have been storing it at mine the past few weeks."

"And what?" One of the twins asked, "It's outside?"

"Just come look," Lucy said. Mr. Weasley breathed out a laugh and got to his feet, and though Mrs. Weasley, Remus and Sirius followed him to the door the children— though they leaned forward in suspense —stayed stuck to the ground.

"No,' Mr. Weasley gasped from his spot next to Lucy. "No—I, really?" Mrs. Weasley, with a hand to her mouth looked between Lucy, remus and Sirius.

"Another one?" Lucy shrugged, a mischievous grin curled on her face, though she tried to retrain it under Mrs. Weasleys motherly gaze.

"I figured since Harry and Ron ruined the last one and Harry is ours, we sort of owed you something." It took a second for the kids to get it but Harry's eyes widened first.

"A car!" Ron breathed, he was the first to race forward— the other children and Percy raced after him to the door; Ted, Mr and Mrs. Weasley, Lucy and Remus and Sirius all spilled outside as the children crowded in the doorway —to look out and see a nineteen-sixty-eight sky blue Pontiac Firebird in front of the house.

"Merry Christmas," Lucy said. "Sirius and Remus have been working on it since we got it," Lucy said to Mr. Weasley as the two of them stepped forward to get a better look at the car, "It can fly and this time around the invisibility booster won't just stop working."

"But-but the law," Percy breathed, Lucy smirked as Percy muttered something about muggle objects being spelled.

"Is fine with it," she said, "Dora got me the paperwork and I got it fast tracked with the help of your co-worker Perkins and uh some lady from the department of magical Transportation— Endwater or something like that —meaning," Lucy told Mr. Weasley, "As of five yesterday afternoon this car is registered with the Ministry of Magic as." Mr. Weasley, with glassy eyes turned to Lucy,

"This is—this is too much, thank you." Lucy beamed, as he pulled her into a tight, Molly Weasley-esque hug. Blindly reaching out Mr. Weasley pulled Remus by the cuff of his jumper into the hug as well. "Thank you!"

None them— after Ted left and Mrs. Weasley and Remus went inside to finish dinner —noticed that snow had even started to fall until Fred had used magic to aim the snowball he'd created at Ron's head; after that, as the children pulled their wands from their pockets and began to conjure snowballs, Sirius and Lucy saddled together, shoulder to shoulder on the hood of the car, watching them.

Neither Black sibling said anything to the either and that was enough, because Lucy knew— as Sirius wrapped an arm around her shoulders —without him having to say it, this was going to be the moment they remembered when they were old and grey; snowballs and laughter and the feeling of familial love.


	19. January 1995 - chapter nineteen

**January 3, 1995**

_Everything was older; the kids were, Remus was, she was and yet the fact she was closer to thirty five then twenty didn't frighten her. Lucy was sitting at the dining room table of Constellation Commernacy and there was a wedding ring around her finger. Theo and Tahani sat across from her as Remus sat next to her and Harry sat on her other side, Sirius and Dora sat at the opposite heads of the table. Penny sat next to her and the table seemed almost impossibly ling because the more Lucy looked the more people seemed to be seated._

_The Weasleys― all seven including Meiri and Mia ―were scattered across the table; Andromeda and Ted sat with Opelia and The Tornadoes also seemed to each have a place at the long, never ending oak table. Merula Snyde and Barnaby laughed at a joke that Rowan had apparently made while Ben, red faced and embarrassed, hid behind his covered hands._

_Professors Sprout and Flitwick, both spoke to Madam Hooch and Pomfrey._

_"Mum," Theo said, "Tell Tahani that Wales is never going to win the cup, we're lucky if Ireland wins and that'll only be if Lynch pulls his head out his arse."_

_"The Welch National team is good!" Tahani slapped her hand against the dinner table laughing, "Just because you don't like that one of their beaters has a thing for Meiri―"_

_"―That is, I mean―" Harry couldn't help laugh at Theos floundering, "They're bad! I mean Harry sees that, right?" Theo looked at the Boy Who Lived expectedly._

_"They could be better, I guess," Harry said._

_"Exactly, they suck!" Lucy laughed. She felt fine; she felt content and happy. She was surrounded by the people she loved and her kids were happy and healthy and safe. Her kids. Lucy looked at Theo and Tahani and Harry, they were all grown themselves― all about as old as she was when she met them ―and they were okay._

_Lucy couldn't help but feel warm; she wasn't like her mother. Remus grabbed her hand under the table and brought her knuckles to his lips. His eyes bore into hers as he kissed her hand._

_"I love you," he told her. She smiled and kissed his check, her breath fanned against his face._

Lucy blinked awake, light came in from the windows of her bedroom and Remus' head rested against her stomach as his arms were wrapped around her waist; her own legs were wrapped around his.

"I love you," she told the sleeping wizard and though the only answer she got back was a piggish snore she smiled.

* * *

**January 5, 1995**

Both Oliver Wood― in a dark blue Puddlemere United sweater and baggy jeans ―and Marcus Flint― in fine expensive dress robes ―held hands on the long dark green green couch at Constellation Commerancy. The sun was still rising over the treetops that surrounded the house and light filtered in through the curtain-less windows. Marcus Flint's left knee bounced anxiously, causing his and the reserve Keepers hands to jump in tandem with his knee.

Lucy, who's hair was tied back into two tight braids, had Marcus Flint's marriage contract sprawled out on the coffee table next to the platter of tiny gochujang― Korean chili paste Sirius had picked up the last time he'd gone to Diagon Alley because _Come on Goose your gochujang are to die for!_ ―meatballs. The three of them could hear Remus and Sirius laughing from the floor above them as they settled in their seats.

Oliver had his coat folded over the arm of the couch and Marcus still had his own on; the hand that wasn't holding Olivers was stuffed into the pocket of the coat.

The contract was more or less standard. It had both Sir Flint and the remarried Madam Jugson signatures attesting that they both agreed their children― Wendy Rowle and Marcus ―would be wed that upcoming July; and it went onto explain that Sir Flint was going to pay Wendy Rowles dowry at the wedding― a ruby and diamond encrusted diadem and thirty-six thousand galleons ―and that all of her and Marcus' children would be brought up properly, just as the wedding and funeral rights for both Marcus and Wendy would be in accordance with pureblood traditions. It also mentioned that there would be no divorce, that the marriage was indeed until death did them part.

"I'm sorry I took so long to get back to you two but with Harry and this new law that Umbridge woman is trying to roll out―"

"―It's fine ma'am," Oliver smiled, "Really, you're doing us a favor." Lucy smiled warmly at the younger man. She noticed, for the first time since their arrival, as Oliver moved his and Marcus' hands, a ring on his fourth finger that reminded Lucy of a snitch; the topaz stone glittered under the living room lights. Lucy's smile grew.

Dora and Penny and Oliver and Marcus and sooner or later Mia and Charlie; everyone was getting married weren't they? Bill would one day― he was too amazing to never get married ―and if Merula and Gadrel kept going at the pace they were the dark haired witch would end up dragging her and Mia to some kind of shotgun wedding sooner or later.

"Congratulations," Lucy said. Marcus perked up, his own lips twisting into a smile as Oliver beamed,

"Thanks," Oliver said as Marcus shrugged, "It's not technically official but Sweden passed a law a few days ago that let―" Marcus paused and his face turned red, "―Gay couples like us get married so I figured why not ask, you know?"

Not really, Lucy remembered how Remus had frozen when she had told him she loved him and how he had always told her he could never give her what she wanted― he could though, he had been giving her exactly what he said he wasn't able to, someone to come home to and someone to raise children with ―and so she just smiled thinly at the two young wizards.

"Well good news then your father and Wendy Rowel's mother chose what's basically your average marriage contract template," Lucy explained.

"What do you mean by average?" Oliver asked, his thick, caterpillar eyebrows knitted together.

"It's what most families use when drafting a contract. Sometimes families will change the wording around so that the witch and wizard being married off will have to get married by a certain time or age or suffer the consequences―"

"―Consequences?" Oliver repeated, his voice cracked, Marcus squeezed his fiance's hand and sot a closed lip, but reassuring, smile at the reserve Keeper,

"―Sometimes whatever party runs is cursed, usually they and their descendants will suffer some kind of blood malediction," Marucs said.

"But usually that's not the case," Lucy told Oliver who looked half panicked. "While sure, in most cases when the bride or groom runs off there are some sort of penalty. Sometimes the family of the runaway will have to pay or sometimes if there's a younger sibling or an unmarried older one the family will have to marry them off to the family on the hook―"

"And here?" Oliver worried.

"Sir Flint will still have to pay Wendy Rowles dowry if he were to, say run away with the Puddlemore reserve Keeper or something, but what are the likes of that happening?" Lucy wondered with a sly calico-like smirk. Marcus Flints shoulders relaxed, an old diadem that hadn't seen the outside of the family vault and a sack full of galleons was nothing for a family like the Flints, Lucy knew that. She met Marcus' eyes and she could see the hope behind them start to grow.

"Really?" Marcus asked, his voice cracked mid-word.

"Really," Lucy assured them and both Oliver and Marcus' expressions brightened; both boys turned to each other and where Oliver grabbed the front of Marcus' shirt, smacking his lips against the older Slytherin alumni, Marcus' hands pressed against both sides of Oliver's face as he kissed the other boy back just as ferocious as he was being kissed.

Lucy in her seat, nearly reeled back at the boys display of affection― she'd only ever seen them kiss once, only ever saw them hold hands when they walked through the fireplace, so seeing Oliver's tongue slip into Marcus' mouth had heat flood Lucy's face ―and smiled.

When the two other Quidditch players pulled away from each other― Oliver's hands were still fisted in Marcus' robes and Marcus' hands had slipped to the Scottish boys neck ―they, with bashful smiles but bright eyes, turned to Lucy and then back back at each other.

Marcus grabbed Oliver's hand and slipped off the ring before either Lucy or Oliver could say something. Marcus got to the floor on both his knees, the snitch ring between his large fingers, and he looked up at Oliver.

"Marry me?" Marcus wondered.

"I already said I would," Oliver said with a laugh.

"I meant today," Marcus said, "Lets fly to Sweden right now and get married before my father can think of a way to stop us." Oliver blinked.

"You're not kidding." Marcus was still on his knees and the ring was still between his fingers and Lucy, still in her seat across from them watched on. _Always a bridesmaid, never a bride;_ that was the saying, Lucy looked to the hallway where the stairs were and she almost half wanted to see Remus there, leaning against the archway, his arms crossed.

She almost half wanted him to see. She wanted to point out that if Penny and Dora and Marcus and Oliver could get married then there was hope for them in the end, and sure, perhaps they didn't need rings or a license from any Ministry or muggle government to decide how they were allowed to love each other but there was still something about the thought of being Lucretia W. Lupin that made Lucy's clench.

She wanted that with him, she'd known that for a while. The idea had swam through her thoughts more and more ever since that dream― the one where she had been a mother and he had been her husband ―and even more after Dora had started to ask her to help plan her and Penny's engagement, but she had never thought it so clearly.

Lucy wanted to be Mrs. Lupin and she wanted Tahani and Theo and Harry to stay with them until they were old enough to be on their own― she wanted to raise them the rest of the way ―and she wanted the life Remus claimed he could never give her with him.

Oliver turned to Lucy, as did Marcus, "Feel free do say no," Marcus told her, "You've already done more than enough but if, well, if you have nothing planned for the rest of the day would you like to be our witness?"

Lucy blinked. "In Sweden?"

"It's a four and half hour flight," Oliver pipes up, grinning. Lucy had fought Ice Knights and Acromantulas and Death Eaters and she had fallen in love with a werewolf despite everyone― said werewolf included ―telling her it was a bad idea. So of course she said yes.

Marcus beamed; his teeth were still crooked and off white but his eyes squinted up and Lucy felt happiness bloom in her chest for the younger man. She was happy for him, even if part of her was envious.

* * *

**January 9, 1995**

It was cold outside, there was snow on the ground and the sky was grey and cloudy but a picnic blanket was spread out on the living room floor of Constellation Commerancy. The drapes on all the windows were pulled back and playing in the background on the record player that was in the corner of the room played the muggle singer Frank Satantra's They Can't Take That Away From Me.

Lucy, in only one of Remus' sweaters and a pair of fuzzy socks, and Remus, who was down to his underwear, both held magical go fish cards in their hands; Lucy had three cards in her hand while Remus had ten.

"Do you have any twos?" Remus wondered, eyeing his own card. The bright yellow card had a moving picture of Falco Aesalon, the first recorded animagus. Lucy puffed out a laugh,

"Go fish." Remus groaned. "Come on Remus," Lucy smirked, "It's not like I haven't seen it before." Remus threw Lucy a half-heated glare; his eyes twinkled in amusement as Lucy eyed his checkered underwear the same way a dog would eye a fine cut of meat, hungrily. Remus set his cards down and got to his feet, he, with a heated look in his own eyes, looked at Lucy as he hooked his fingers into the waist of his boxers.

The fabric hit the floor as he stepped out of them. Lucy smiled coyly at the werewolf before looking back at her own cards. Remus kneeled on the ground where he was before.

"Got any―" Lucy was cut off with a searing kiss to the lips; she dropped her cards to the floor in favor of running her hands through Remus' hair, tugging at the ends of it. Remus gripped Lucy's waist as he settled her under him, his thigh resting between hers. His hands had only started to push up the golden colored sweater when the fireplace erupted into green flames.

Neither Lucy nor Remus noticed the emerging figure until Sirius let out a shrill sounding '_Merlin_!' Tearing themselves away from one another both Remus― who grabbed the picnic blanket and pulled it over himself and Lucy, sending the food and cards that surrounded them to the floor ―and Lucy let out horrified squawks of surprise as the eldest Black stumbled back into the empty fireplace, against the bricks.

"Seriously!" Sirius demanded, "The living room!"

"You weren't supposed to be back until later!" Lucy defended, her face was buried Remus' bare chest;_ At least_, she thought,_ It wasn't Mrs. Weasley._

* * *

**January 12, 1995**

_It was sunny and warm and Lucy had lived an entire lifetime in what only felt like minutes. Her brother Regulus and his wife Claudia and their three children were traveling, her mother was dead, as were her father and cousin Bellatrix― who had tragically died young ―and her brother Sirius was away on a mission for the Ministry. Araminta and Rabstan were in Italy as her cousin had a book signing there._

_Lucy was wearing a dress. Her hair was longer than she had ever let it grow out before, it reached all the way past the middle of her back, and her toenails were painted wildly bright colors that changed every few minutes._

_Lucy, with a large, rounded stomach stood looking out at the backyard of Constellation Commerancy. Harry, Fred, Theo and Ron were in the air while facing them were George, Charlie, Tahani and Ginny. They all looked older than Lucy could ever remember seeing them, and yet she didn't expect them to look any other way. George had the quaffle and he passed it to Ginny only for Harry to steal it, Lucy looked away from the game when she heard Bill's loud laugh._

_She could, as she placed her hands against her stomach, feel the baby inside her kicking; it felt like gentle thuds coming from the inside out._

_Under, near where those six were playing, was Bill and Meiri and Ophelia, and around them were four children. Lucy could see the children easily despite being over a dozen yards away; the boy― the older one of the two dark haired children ―had curly black hair that reminded Lucy of the old pictures she had from both Regulus' and Sirius childhoods. He had a long nose and his eyes weren't grey, they were the same shade of hazel green that Remus' were._

_The boy next to him― next to her son because she knew it in her bones those two boys were hers the same way she knew the sky was blue ―looked similar, his hair was saggier and though his chin was more pronounced than the older boys he had the same trademarked Black family eyes that Lucy and her brothers and her parents had all had._

_Sons, she had sons and the revelation didn't come as a surprise._

_There was a red headed boy next to him― maybe Bills or Charlies but a Weasley's without a doubt ―and a little girl baby girl with tight curls, who was nestled into Ophelia's stomach as she sat upright, staring wondrously at her surroundings._

_"Mummy!" The oldest boy squealed, looking away from Bill. The boy was no older than four, and as he got closer Lucy took notice to the freckles that dotted the boy's nose and the way he smiled as he ran to her, and just as he was about to jump at her with outstretched arms Remus, who she hadn't yet noticed swooped the boy into the air._

_"Daddy!" Remus danced the boy around in circles, swinging him; the pair of them laughed as they played; both Remus and the boy grinned at Lucy as Remus settled her― their ―son on his hip. A wedding band glittered on his ring finger just as a wedding and engagement band glittered on her own._

_The wedding had been small and took place at the Burrow and though Lucy had lived it all the memory was surrounded by a fog as she thought back to the moment. She stopped thinking about the wedding and the vows and how Remus had cupped her face as they kissed and instead focused on Remus as he looked down at their son._

_"Regulus what have I told you and Will about jumping on your mum?" Remus scolded, though he wore a smile as he did so. The little boy pouted._

_"That we can hurt the baby in her tummy, but daddy I love her!" The boy― Regulus ―said seriously. Regulus John and William James and in a month and a half Miadora Hope; those were the names of her children, Lucy could practically hear herself naming each and every one of them as clearly as she could hear the birds around them chirping._

_"Well you can show your love without jumping on her can't you?" Remus asked and though the child's nose scrunched up he nodded._

_"Yeah," the boy said, he turned to Lucy, "Mummy!" Lucy blinked at the loudness, and smiled; she beamed and stepped closer to Remus and Regulus, Regulus reached for her and though Remus didn't pass the young boy to her the child wrapped his arms around Lucy's neck and squeezed._

_"I love you mummy," he said._

_"I love you too Reggie." She pressed a kiss on the crown of the boy's head._

Lucy shot up, Remus her boyfriend― not her fiance or husband or father of the children she didn't have ―grumbled next to her. Her chest ached; she wanted what she had dreamed, she wanted to have a life with Remus and maybe she didn't see herself with children. She could see the wedding band on Remus' finger, she could see the one on hers and she wanted it.

_People always want the things they can never have, don't they?_ Lucy settled back into bed, her arms wrapped around Remus' back as she pulled herself against him, and she closed her eyes, ignoring the thought of how nice the name Regulus John sounded.

* * *

**January 15, 1995**

Remus was tired and pale and sweating buckets; laid out on top of the blankets in a t-shirt and boxers Lucy could see the wizards trying not to pull his knees up to his stomach and curl up into a ball on his side of the bed. She knew she would be paying for calling out of practice― Birch would make her run the length of the field a dozen and a half times, and then a dozen more ―but looking at Remus shake from the pain he was already experiencing she couldn't bother to care.

Next to him, pressed up against his back was Shebia. The Keezel, though more often than not spent her days in the forest around the house, had taken to spending the partially cold winter days in Constellation Commernacy.

"Remus," she cooed, holding a bowl of cawl cynhaeaf, a type of Welsh soup Remus had told her his mother had used to make for him whenever he'd get sick before a full moon. He groaned back in response. "I brought soup, Sirius is going to Penny's to see if she has anything for the pain."

"'M sorry," he said, his voice muffled and slurred. He rubbed his face against the pillow he was resting on. Lucy set the bowl of soup on the nightstand next to him and knelt down in front of him. With a soft grin and a fond shake of the head she wondered whatever for, her nails scraped against the scalp of his head.

"You shouldn't 'ave to take care 'er me," Remus told her. It always seemed like he sung the same tune whenever he was sick and laid up in bed, Lucy frowned for a second before she flashed Remus a bright smile.

"Don't be stupid Remus, I love you, taking care of you, it's no sweat."

"Yes it is―" Remus with a groan, as he ignored Lucy's protests to lay back down, pushed himself up. "―You shouldn't have to burden yourself―" Lucy pressed her finger to his lips.

"Remus Lupin you aren't nor have you ever been a burden, not to me, okay?" He blinked, "I love you, taking care of you when you're sick, that's not something I resent doing, okay?" His eyes clouded over with tears. Lucy ignored how the words _In sickness and in health_, rang through her ears.

He didn't want to marry her, this was the best she was getting and she was happy with that. She knew that walking in Remus didn't want to marry her, and she was okay with that.

"I don't deserve you," Remus whispered, he cupped her face, "I don't." Lucy knew she could argue with him, that she could point out that it was her who didn't deserve him, that she was lucky to know him, but she didn't because Remus' shoulders were hunched forward and his lips were pressed together tightly, and bickering over who was more unworthy of the others love wasn't something Remus needed at that moment.

So instead she kissed the tip of his nose as she led him back against the headboard, half laying down and half sitting up. She placed the bowl of soup in his lap as she settled by his knee. Remus had only taken half a bite of the lamb she'd put in the stew when his eyes had flashed up from the food and to her.

"You made my mum's soup?" He asked, his voice soft and almost mystified.

"You told me she made it for you whenever you got really sick before a full moon." Remus looked at her like there were a thousand and one thoughts racing through his mind only to smile a few seconds later; his face soft and more relaxed then it had been since he had gotten sick.

"Merlin I love you."

* * *

**January 16, 1995**

Sore and not wanting to move, Lucy, as Sirius and Remus started to get ready to leave for the moon that night, sat in the living room, with Harry's owl Hedwig perched on the arm of the couch next to her. The snowy owl preened as Lucy scratched under its chin as she read Harry's letter to her.

**Lucy,**

**George told me to talk to you about girl problems and well I don't have girl problems exactly but there's this girl in the year above me, Cho Chang, and she's going out with Cedric Diggory― I asked her to the Yule Ball but she was already going with Cedric ―and she's nice and really pretty and I was wondering what do I do?**

**Ron reckons that if I win the tournament Cho will want to go out with me, but I mean she has a boyfriend (and I like Cedric, he's nice) so I don't want her to break up with Cedric just for me because I won a tournament, that seems wrong but I like her and I don't really know what to do.**

**Should I still like her? Should I stop? How do I stop liking her?**

**Harry**

**PS. If you get this before Moony and Padfoot leave for the Full moon please tell them I say hi**

**PPS. Lee Jordan saw me writing to you and says hi, I think he still has a crush on you**

The last half of the second postscript afterthought was crossed out; Lucy could almost imagine the dark skinned Quidditch announcer reaction to Harry's observation as much as she could imagine the twins cackling in the background.

"Harry's a good kid, isn't he Hedwig?" Lucy wondered at the owl, the snowy white owl in response let out a high pitched coo; Lucy couldn't help but smile. The English-Korean witch turned her head when she heard two sounds of footsteps coming down the stairs; Sirius, with a large and fully stuffed duffle bag thrown over his shoulder beamed at the sight of the owl as he stepped into the living room, and Remus' face, while he smiled at Hedwig, grew soft at the sight of Lucy.

"Harry wrote?" Sirius asked rhetorically. Remus leaned against the wall closest to him.

"Yeah," Lucy told him, "He wanted my advice on girls." Sirius's brows shot up,

"And he asked you?"

"I am a girl," Lucy shot back her eyes narrowed, "In case you forgot." Sirius looked like he wanted to say something in rebuttal only to nod instead.

"Alright," Sirius said, and Remus pushed off the wall he had been leaning against and slowly walked over to the couch; Lucy, as Remus bared down over her, tilted her chin upwards and pressed a chaste kiss against his lips. The werewolf hummed out a content breath as he pulled away.

Lucy's palm pressed flat against Remus' scruffy cheek. "Stay safe," she told him, and though he looked weary and about to fall over if he encountered the slightest of winds, he smiled.

"Sirius will be there," Remus told her as if her brother being there meant something― and perhaps to him it did ―he pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose. "I love you."

"I love you too Remus."

* * *

**January 20, 1995**

The Black family had always had heirlooms; they had her great-great grandmother's wedding ring, the engagement ring her great-great uncle was supposed to have given his betrothed― the same one Regulus was supposed to give Claudia ―they had vases and diadems and collar style necklaces that cost more than some people could even imagine making in their lifetime.

Of course it wasn't all they had gotten throughout their lives but each Black child had been given an heirloom at birth; Sirius and Bellatrix had both gotten their great grandfathers daggers― though Sirius had also inherited their material grandfather's favorite cufflinks. Regulus had been given a goblin made pocket watch that never had to be rewound and always seemed to remind the wearer if they were late. Andromeda had gotten diamond earrings that were as big as her newborn fists, Araminta, who had been born sickly and not expected to survive had been given their great-great grandmother Violetta's collar style necklace and Narcissa had been given the diadem that had been past throughout the family for centuries.

Lucy had gotten a ring, it was diamond rose, the goblin crafted gold band extended past the petals― it was as if golden vines and thorns were growing from the diamond petals of the rose ―all the way to both the nail of her finger and knuckle of her hand.

In one of the top rooms of The Three Broomsticks Remus set up the streamers and Lucy blew up the balloons and Sirius and Dora and Mrs. Weasley set up and arranged the table and food― Mrs. Weasley, as Dora unwrapped the seaweed soup and Sirius opened up the container of Butterbeer flavored cookies, plopped candle after candle into the green cake she had made ―Penny hung up the banner that in dark blue letters read: **Happy Birthday Theo!**

The letters towards the end― all of Theo's name ―were smaller than the words Happy, as was the second half of the word birthday. The Weird Sisters latest album played in the background.

There was a knock at the door, as Lucy, with a yellow balloon on her hands, stopped mid-blow and answered the door to see Tahani, Blaise Zabini, Chester's younger sister Tracey, the Greengrass girls― Tahani and Astroia had their shoulders together and jovial smiles on their faces ―Ophelia and the twins. Lucy beamed.

"Mr. Zabini, Miss. Davies', Greengrasses', thank you for coming, I'm sure it'll mean a lot to Theo." Blasie Zabini nodded,

"Theo's our friend, we're happy to be here Lady Black." Lucy was sure that if anything, their parents were happy they were there, rubbing elbows with the house of Black; even if she and Sirius were the undesirable members of the ancestral house.

"Well come on in," Lucy sidestepped, "I'm sure you all remember Remus from last year―" only Astoria greeted the werewolf enthusiastically; though Daphne did wave which was more then either Blaise or Tracey did, "―That's Mrs. Weasley by the cake and my cousin Dora and brother Sirius―" Lucy was cut off by Blaise Zabini's whispered 'wicked', "―And that's my cousin's fiance Penny."

Penny turned from her spot on the ladder and waved when she heard her name, the kids in the room greated her back.

Lucy checked her watch, "Theo and the others should be here very shortly, eat, talk―" Lucy looked at both Astoria and Tahani, "―Don't kill each other over Quidditch." Tahani and Astroia grinned.

The door opened without a knock and in came Luna Lovegood, Hermioine Granger, Ginny, Ron and Neville Longbottom; Lucy's eyebrows shot up at the sight of the meek looking boy.

"I hope you don't mind we brought him Lucy," Ron said, "Seamus and Dean and sick and Harry so I invited him." The song changed as Ron finished speaking; the album ended and the record player that Sirius had put in the corner of the room began to play had started to play Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls, an up and coming band.

"Of course it is, the more the merrier," Lucy clapped the redheaded boy on the shoulder. She looked at the Cuddly Canons shirt he was wearing and frowned.

"Traitor," she grumbled, Ron stuck his tongue out at Lucy who copped the young boys actions before she turned to Neville.

"M-Ma-I mean, Lady Black," Neville squeaked, he breathed in a deep breath, "It's lovely to see you again ma'am." Lucy smiled tenderly at the young boy whole Opehlia, with a fleeting glance to him, dragged both Fred and George to their cousin.

"It's great to see you again Neville, I hope your grandmother's well?" Neville nodded,

"Yes ma'am."

"You can call me Lucy Neville."

"Uh, I'm okay," Neville said, "My gran always said to call people by their titles Lady Black." Lucy couldn't help but laugh. She hated the title Lady Black, hated the weight and the blood it came with but who was she to tell Neville Longbottom what he could and couldn't call her after everything her family had done to his?

"Alright," she told him nodded, "Well please have fun, Harry and Meiri should be bringing Theo here soon." Lucy then raised the yellow balloon she still had in her hands back up to her lips as the kids seemed to split off amongst themselves.

Lucy tied the balloon's end and threw it to the side. She pulled another unblown balloon out of her pants pocket and began to breathe in it.

Neville and Luna hovered by Ginny who spoke excitedly with Tahani and Astoria; Blaise Zabini and the twins were with Sirius who tossed his dark hair over his shoulder with a loud bark of laughter, Lucy could only imagine what they were talking about. Daphne and Tracey were talking to one another in the corner near Penny, each girl took turns looking at Blaise Zabini before turning to each other and saying something else, and Ophelia chatted with Dora, who's hair rapidly changed from pink to purple to orange back to pink.

Lucy had blown three morn balloons up by the time Harry and Meiri led a blindfolded Theo Nott into the room.

"You guys know you didn't have to blindfold him right?" Lucy wondered and Meiri grinned impishly, just as the twins always did.

"She didn't?" Theo echoed, his lips pressed together and he looked to the side where he knew Meiri was.

"Where's the fun in that?" The Prewett girl wondered with a snot as she pulled off his blindfold. Wide eyed Theo looked at the room. Meiri threw her arm around Theo as he looked from Blaise to Astoria and Tracey, from the two slytherin girls to Remus, from him to Mrs. Weasley and from the mother of seven to Lucy and then from her to Meiri and then back to Lucy.

"You two threw me a party?" He asked, his voice quiet and mystified and Lucy understood. There were birthdays where you were shown off like a prized horse but never really celebrated, ones where you were spoke to but never allowed to carry on a conversation, and then there were birthdays that were quietly forgotten about, ones that were no different from any other day of the week but there were never birthday parties― one's with your friends ―ones with music you could dance until you dropped too, with candy and butterbeer and laughter.

"I told you I'd get you a real birthday party, didn't I Nott?" Meiri gloated and Theo opened his mouth to say something only to close it. He smiled before he pulled the young Hufflepuff into a tight hug; her head rested on his collarbone and his chin balanced on the top of her head.

Theo looked to Lucy and beamed, "Thank you." The Seeker placed an arm on the boy's shoulder and she knew that though the thought of being a mother terrified her, she couldn't help but think of the boy in front of her as her own.

**…**

Later that night, as the party began to die down and the kids all began to leave back to the castle Lucy grabbed Theo's wrist and pulled him to the side. He had a duffel bag full of presents― Ron had gotten him candy from Honeydukes, Hermioine had gotten him an annotated book on ancient ruins and Mrs. Weasley had given him a knitted blanket ―but Lucy hadn't given him anything yet.

His present from her was still tucked away in her pocket.

"Thank you for the party again," Theo said, there was confitty in his hair that Lucy didn't bother to ruffle out;

"Like I said your welcome, it was no problem, I just wanted to give you your present before you and the others headed back up to the castle." Theo's ears turned pink.

"You didn't need to get me anything," he said and Lucy waved him off,

"It's your birthday, of course I did." She took out a palm sized box from her pocket and handed it to him. "You've been calling me mum for a few months now and well, I know I can't make it official with a blood adoption but I figured this is the next best thing."

Theo's brows knitted together as he opened the box only for his face to go slack because in the middle of the box was a goblin made ring that proudly showed off the Black Family crest. Lucy had paid an arm and a leg to have the engraving on the inside of the ring changed from _Always Pure_ to _Always Family_, because blood adoption or not Theo was her son.

The fifteen year old boy looked up from the ring and to Lucy with watery eyes. He jumped at her, wrapped his arms tightly around Lucy's neck and squeezed, if he sniffled Lucy pretended she didn't hear it.


End file.
